The progression of Marjorie Clark from pub landlady to long-serving local councillor was a strange one but nevertheless true. She and her husband Denys kept the Nag's Head in the Market Place and one of their regular customers was Dr George Holloway, a family doctor whose practice was at Brook Lodge in South Street. He was a member of Bourne Urban District Council and its chairman from 1957-58 and Marjorie regularly discussed local issues whenever he dropped in. 

One evening late in 1966, with the council elections pending the following spring, he appeared in the lounge as usual but as he left to go home, he put his head round the door and said to Marjorie: "I am dying and will be unable to carry on and so I want you to take my place when it happens."

He did not seek re-election because of his ill health and so Marjorie took his place at the hustings and in 1967 was returned unopposed to fill the seat he had vacated and has been active in local affairs ever since. She lived to the age of 88 and became Bourne's longest serving councillor with 40 years of service to her credit. 

Marjorie Dora Hubbard was born on 16th February 1919 and spent her early years at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire and after leaving school at 15, she went to work as a secretary in a solicitor's office. At this time, she also joined the Junior Imperial League of the Conservative Party, known affectionately as "The Imps" and was appointed assistant secretary and then treasurer, a position she held until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Shortly before, she had become a volunteer in the ARP, the forerunner of the Civil defence Service, working on communications until 1945. During the war years, because of staff shortages, she also took over the law firm's work on behalf of the Chamber of Trade and became involved in a number of other activities including the Girls' Training Corps and welfare work for servicemen stationed in the district and was one of the two representatives from the town to take part in the Victory Parade in London in 1945.

When the war ended, Marjorie re-started the Young Conservative Association as joint chairman and treasurer and she eventually became its chairman while continuing her fund raising activities for various charities. Her interest in local government deepened through a friend who worked for Scunthorpe Corporation and who one summer went to Brighton as a local delegate for the annual conference of NALGO, the local government officers' union, and invited Marjorie along. "I attended practically every session", she remembered in later years. "I could not get enough of it. I was well and truly hooked." Then in 1947, at the age of 28, she made her first attempt to win a local council seat by standing as Conservative candidate in the municipal elections for the Frodingham Ward on Scunthorpe Borough Council and although she was defeated, managed to win the highest number of votes of any Tory candidate to contest that seat in past years.

In the same year, she met Denys Clark, a metallurgist at one of the steelworks in Scunthorpe, and they married on 3rd January 1948. But health problems forced Denys to leave the industry and the couple decided to set up their own business in the retail grocery trade, buying a small shop but still looking for something more suitable to their temperaments. In 1953 they sought and were granted the tenancy of the Cocked Hat Hotel, one of the first hotels to be built at Scunthorpe during the post-war years and here they stayed, learning the intricacies of the licensed trade until moving to Bourne in 1959 to take over the Burghley Arms in the Market Place. 

It was from here that Marjorie gained her first election success by winning a seat on Bourne Urban District Council in 1961 but her council career was short lived because they moved to take over the tenancy of the Sea Horse at Deene in Northamptonshire in 1962. But four years later they were back in Bourne behind the bar of the Nag's Head and it was here that Dr Holloway made his sad but welcome suggestion that Marjorie should succeed him. 

After re-joining the council in 1967 she chaired many committees including estates and planning and development, and became chairman from 1971-72 when she was only the third woman to hold the post since the council's inception in 1899, and her daughter Mrs Penny Woodward, then a 15 year old pupil at Stamford High School, became the chairman's lady. Bourne Urban District Council ceased to exist on 12th March 1974 under the re-organisation of local government and its duties and responsibilities were taken over by Bourne Town Council and Marjorie continued as one of its elected members. She and her husband retired from the licensed trade in 1979 and Denys was her consort when she became Mayor of Bourne in 1984-85. "We had a most wonderful year", she recalls. "We did not miss a single engagement. It was simply marvellous." 

Denys died after a long illness in 1986 at the age of 77. "I lost not only a husband but also my most loyal supporter", said Marjorie. "Right up until the end, he insisted that I must continue with all of my council and other activities."

Marjorie did as he wished, despite undergoing open-heart surgery in 1987 followed by a further operation in 1988. But her stamina and determination amazed everyone who knew her and she was soon up and about again, throwing herself wholeheartedly into whichever task came her way. Not only did she retain her seat on the town council without a break, but was also elected Mayor of Bourne for a second term in 1999-2000 at the remarkable age of 81. 

She has also served with distinction as a member of South Kesteven District Council, the local authority which came into being under the re-organisation of local government in 1974. Its inauguration the previous year necessitated major administrative work and Marjorie served on the steering committee planning its formation and was subsequently elected as the member for Bourne West Ward which she represented as an Independent and then Conservative member for the next 21 years, becoming council vice-chairman for two years and then chairman for another two years from 1990-92, the first woman to hold the office. A switch in allegiance from Conservative to Independent cost her the seat in the 1995 elections but she has continued to serve on Bourne Town Council.

Her other interests were wide and varied, with particular affection for the Mother's Union at the Abbey Church, the Digby Court old peoples' home where she was a tireless helper, the Bourne Evergreen Club which she chaired from 1970 and the ladies' section of Bourne British Legion. She was also a trustee of Bourne United Charities and supported innumerable other organisations and charities in the town.

But her council work was always her first love. "I have never specialised in any particular field but have taken a deep interest in them all", she said, "whether it be the roads, housing, public health, welfare and even the Christmas lights. I like to think of myself as a dedicated councillor representing the people who have voted for me all these years for that is what I was elected to do and that is what I have always striven to achieve."

Marjorie decided not to stand for the town council at the May elections in 2007 because of declining health and later that year she was admitted to the Cedars retirement home in Bourne where she died on Wednesday 26th September 2007. Her daughter, Penny, who gave the eulogy at a memorial service held at the Abbey Church on Wednesday 10th October, said: "If there is a committee in heaven, she will be on it."

REVISED OCTOBER 2007

NOTE: Photograph of Marjorie Clark (top) when chairman of Bourne Urban District
Council 1971-72 courtesy Bourne Heritage Centre

See also The Town Council

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