One of the most remarkable personalities in Bourne during the last century was Ida Pick, first gracing the stage as a glamourous leading lady in amateur theatrical productions and later as a councillor and prominent figure in community affairs whose legacy to this town was the Darby and Joan hall in South Street. 

Ida Elizabeth Stubley was born on 31st July 1888, daughter of Alfred Stubley, a well-known painter and decorator and scenic artist, with premises behind the family home at No 28 West Street, and his wife Elizabeth. The family were staunch members of the Baptist Church next door where Ida was baptised and in 1919, she was married there to Harold William Pick, a master baker, who later took over the family business at No 11 West Street. 

In the early years of the 20th century, before the arrival of television, entertainment depended mainly on touring theatrical companies but amateur stage productions also became popular with regular shows at the Corn Exchange where many of the town’s inhabitants forgot their day jobs by donning costumes and greasepaint to face the footlights and entertain the public nightly for a week, sometimes a fortnight, and much of what they presented was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim. 

Dramatic plays were popular but by far the biggest crowd pullers were the musical comedies which were enjoying such success in the London and provincial theatres at that time with many memorable productions, particularly those by the Bourne Amateur Operatic Society with Ida Pick as both producer and an accomplished contralto who often took a leading role as well as acting as stage manager.  

Ida was always in the limelight. Her father, Alfred Stubley, had achieved a reputation for his stage designs used in many theatrical productions in Bourne and beyond and it would seem inevitable that she had been stage struck by his involvement, soon becoming one of the most popular stars in the locality. 

Her enthusiasm was infectious and the society enjoyed a phenomenal success from 1913 until 1936 with such favourites as The Quaker Girl, The Balkan Princess, The Girl Friend, The Street Singer and No! No! Nanette, all of which had previously enjoyed popularity in the West End, as well as several rousing productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. 

The story of her life on stage survives because her scrapbook of photographs and programmes from this period, known as the Ida Pick Operatic Memorabilia Book, is on display in the Baxter Room at Wake House and a most favourable review of her performance as The Dancing Mistress in the 1929 production records that “on the first night, at the fall of the curtain after the last act, she was presented with a beautiful bouquet”.  

But there was also a serious side of life for Ida who was involved with many organisations for over half a century, as a member of Bourne Urban District Council and as a tireless worker for many good causes, and as a result she was awarded the MBE in the 1974 New Year Honours List for 50 years of voluntary service. 

Her public work began with the church where she was a Sunday school teacher choir mistress from 1930 until her death. She was also a trustee of Bourne United Charities for 15 years, a governor of Bourne Grammar School, a manager of the Abbey Primary School, president of the Children's Clinic in Bourne, vice-president of the Women’s Section of the British Legion and a member of the Physically Handicapped Committee yet also found time to organise blood donor sessions for the town and district. 

But her main love was the Red Cross to which she devoted so much of her life. Mrs Pick had joined the society in 1933 and was a founder-member of the VAD at Boston. She became commandant of the Bourne detachment and ultimately vice-president and then president of the South Lincolnshire branch and in May 1968, received the society's highest award when she was presented with the Certificate of Honour and life membership by Dame Ann Bryans, national vice-chairman of the society, at the annual meeting of the South Lincolnshire branch. 

Her greatest achievement, however, was in founding the Darby and Joan Club in Bourne after seeing a crowd of elderly men sheltering under the archway near the Town Hall one winter’s day because they had nowhere else to go. She arranged for them to meet regularly at various venues in the town and as a result, the Darby and Joan Club was formed in 1950 and ten years later the Darby and Joan Hall in South Street was opened, mainly through her effort and enthusiasm. When she started the club with such humble beginnings there were just 19 members and when she retired as chairman on the occasion of the club’s silver anniversary, the number had risen to 150. 

Her dedicated work in forming the club was acknowledged with the presentation of an inscribed silver salver at the meeting on Monday 17th February 1975 when almost 100 guests attended a sumptuous tea provided by the Bourne detachment of the Red Cross. Mrs Kath Neale, the club secretary, paid tribute to her work, reminding the gathering that Ida Pick had been the first chairman and had remained so for 25 years. "She now feels that she must retire", she said, "although she will not be leaving us, just sitting back." 

Ida always regarded herself as merely an instrument for change within the wider community and on the occasion of being awarded her MBE, she displayed a typical modesty when she said: “The honour is for Bourne as well as myself. In my social activities, I have had a great deal of help from many people and without them little would have happened.” 

She died at Peterborough Memorial Hospital on Monday 5th May 1975, aged 86. The funeral service was held at the Baptist Church the following Wednesday before a packed congregation of relatives and friends and representatives from the many organisations with which she had been connected. She is buried in the town cemetery where a marble plaque marks her grave but her lasting memorial is the Darby and Joan hall in South Street.