OBITUARY: Homeless hostel manager and committed community campaigner Glynis Lapage

Glynis Lapage was heavily involved in community and politics in Oxford in the 1980s and 90s including a long stint as a committee member for the East Oxford Community Centre.

Born in 1947 in Nottingham to Arthur Andrews, a manager at an agricultural fuel supply company, and his wife, Dorothy (nee Fryer), Glyn grew up in Boston, Lincolnshire, where she went to Kitwood girls’ secondary school, leaving at 16 to take up secretarial work.

In 1978, she came to Oxford with her husband Fergus, who she had married in 1973, and two young sons, Simon and Louis, and immediately threw herself into community life.

She started working at a local Housing Aid advice centre, then moved to Oxford council’s housing department and was known for her energy and commitment and for being incredibly generous with her time, always ready to go the extra mile and offer practical help.

She was also the ‘warden’ for the Skene Welfare Unit in Iffley Road, a fighter for women’s rights, and an active member of the Labour Party.

Ms Lapage lived in and around East Oxford and Cowley and both her work and personal life combined her passion for community and her love of socialising.

While serving on the community centre's committee, her role included organising several social events and friend Viv Peto remembers her enthusiastically performing the song ‘and then he kissed me’ during one particularly memorable evening there.

Ms Peto met Glynis in 1979 when they were both returning to education at Ruskin College in Headington.

After gaining a diploma in social studies she went on to take a sociology degree at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University), then dedicated herself to all aspects of housing in Oxford.

Her final role in the sector was at Simon House, the large hostel for homeless people in Paradise Street, which closed last year.

She progressed through the ranks and eventually became the hostel's General Manager.

She and Fergus divorced in the late 90s and Glyn returned to Boston to make a new career as a school secretary.

She then moved to Spain, where her sister Jill had a home, but often returned to Oxford to visit her son Louis who had continued to live in the city.

In recent years she came back to Oxford to live herself due to her declining health.

Despite suffering from a number of complex health problems, she remained a positive person.

She was grateful and polite to all those trying to help her and was always interested in others.

For Ms Lapage, the most important part of life was family.

She was a devoted aunt and sister, as well as a parent. And latterly, a loving grandmother.

Holidays often included her extended family and she would often travel to Cambodia to see her other son Simon who had moved there.

She died on May 9 in Oxford and is survived by her sons and her brother Stephen, and Jill.

Her funeral was held on Wednesday, June 19.