Alison Purves – Lifetime ‘giver’ remembered

• She had a glass half full outlook.

By Tony Scott,
JUNE 02, 2021

The North-East has lost a link to the pioneering fin fish farming industry as well as a more social time with the death of Alison Purves.

The former midwife and perennial volunteer was remembered for her lively interests in charity work, socialising and ever-practical nature.

She was in her 93rd year, and spent a good part of that life in Bridport since 1984, when she married childhood friend Alec Purves.

Earlier she met and married an Englishman and had three children, all of whom spoke lovingly of their mother at her funeral.

Born in Sandy Bay the former foundation student of Fahan School had more than a share of tragedy in her life, with a fiancé and her first husband meeting untimely deaths.

She completed her nurse training in Melbourne then her mid-wifery at Hobart’s Princess Alexandra before setting off to work Dalby in Queensland as a bush nurse.

A story was related of how she was delivering a baby in a bush homestead when a curious cow poked its head through a window to eat the flowers on the sill.

After the fiancé’s death she travelled on a merchant ship to London taking up a position in the poorest sections of East London.

More recently she recalled it was bit like the television show ‘Call the midwife’. 

“Only the people were even poorer.” 

She had described how housing estate tenants would put their newborns into a drawer as a make-shift crib and how she was chased by stray dogs as she dealt with afterbirth wrapped in soggy newspaper.

But through those trials she was sought out by John Fawcett who had decided she was the one.

They were married after a six-month courtship and settled into Hertfordshire, where besides motherhood Alison threw herself into charity work.

Starting with Meals and Wheels she moved onto to Books on Wheels so she could have more time and a proper chat with people.

She was a people person. During her extensive travels around the world it was more the people she met that she remembered rather than places she saw.

Widowed in 1982 Alison married the brother of a school friend and moved from the UK to Bridport to set up home with Alec Purves in 1984.

She was immediately involved with the Golf Club and charity work including helping establish the Clifford Craig Foundation.

Much of her generosity often went barely noticed other than by the beneficiaries.

Describing her as a giver daughter Sarah recalled that Alison in her 80s had her “little old ladies” (actually in their 70s and living alone) coming for a meal.  

There was reference to her love of good food and good wine with good friends.

She had a glass half full outlook.