Iris Esther Wynne (27 Mar 1929 - 27 Mar 2024)

In loving memory of Iris Esther Wynne who sadly passed away on 27th March 2024, aged 95 years.

A funeral service of celebration and thanksgiving for Iris' life will take place on Thursday 2nd May 2024 at 1pm at St Peter's Church, Hurstwood Road, Bredhurst, ME7 3JZ and people are welcome to join the family after the service at the Garden of England Crematorium, Sheppey Way, Bobbing, ME9 8GZ .

You can live stream the funeral at the crematorium at 2pm. The stream will start 5 minutes before the service. A test stream is available to check your connection.
Website: https://watch.obitus.com
User Name: mome6050
Password: 951932
You can also watch the funeral for up to 28 days after the live stream.

The Wake will take place at The Barn Yard, Oak Lane, Sittingbourne ME9 7EZ at 2.30pm but people can arrive after 2pm if they don't attend the crematorium. If you are planning to join us at the funeral you can select the option below.

The family would prefer no floral tributes but donations in memory of Iris to be made to The Holiday Homes Trust which Iris supported. Donations can be made online via this website or there will also be donation box available at the service.

BIOGRAPHY
Iris was born in Hackney on 27 March 1929 and was the eldest child of Esther and Stanley Walker who went on to have 2 more daughters Rita in 1930 and Pauline in 1940. Stan was a bus conductor on the London buses and Esther worked at the Metal Box factory who manufactured tin cans.

Iris joined the Brownies when 7 years old in 1936. A friend had asked her to join the group in Palmers Green. She then went on to become a Guide. In Brownies, Iris was taught how to deal with incendiary bombs because of the war.

The family moved to Edmonton, North London and Iris was selected to attend Latymer Grammar School, on the basis of her competence and work and she attended there in 1940 when Iris was 11. She left in 1945. As it was wartime Iris had to keep safe during bombing raids either by sheltering under tables or corridors in assigned areas at her school or in the Anderson Shelter built in her home back garden. There was a near miss when a bomb exploded off the street she lived in which blew in the windows. Every night the family had to take their bedding to the Anderson shelter. There were air raids most nights so the family were always prepared to go and sleep in the shelter. The inside of the shelter had a mass of condensation and the government arranged for contractors to spray sawdust onto the walls to soak it up.

Iris learnt to be thrifty and not waste food or anything else (due to food and clothing rationing) and this stayed with her for the rest of her life. Iris was evacuated along with her sister Rita near to Clacton on Sea for a short time but they then returned to their home in London.

Iris left Latymer Grammar School in 1945 and started work in the same year, aged 16, at Hulton Press (they produced Picture Post) and was the supervisor in the stationery department. It was owned by Sir Edward Hulton. She started work in Shoe Lane in the Evening Standard Building. She could see all the compositors making up the print for the newspaper. Picture Post was a photojournalistic magazine published from 1938 to 1957. It was considered a pioneering example of photojournalism (similar to Hello magazine today) and was an immediate success.

Iris met Kenneth Wynne after the war. Ken worked in the Post Office from 1938 as a messenger boy and sorter and then he volunteered to go into the Royal Navy at 18 in 1942. He became a signalman on LCT’s (Landing Craft Tanks) and was trained in Portsmouth. LCT’s were used to clear the beaches/bombardment. Ken’s ship took part in the Juno Beach landings during D Day and his ship hit a mine and was blown up and a couple of the officers were killed on the bridge. Ken sustained a nasty shrapnel wound to his neck but he survived. Ken was then sent out on a war ship to Trincomalee, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. He then went out to Singapore on an American ship; he was amazed at the facilities and food on the ship compared to the British ships.

Ken had joined as a Wolf Cub in 1932 at the 94th North London Scout Group, Friern Barnet and then went on to become a Scout. When Ken came out of the Navy, he went back to the scout group but this time as a leader. It was through Iris’ family connections with a member of the 94th that Iris met Ken.

They started courting in 1947 when Iris was 17 and Ken was 22. Both were very active in the 94th North London Scout Group.

Gang Shows were famous theatre events run by the scouts at the time and were part of the culture of the scout movement. These were huge shows attended by the public and their aim was to create confidence amongst scouts, have fun and entertain parents and friends of the scouts. Iris and Ken started gang shows for the 94th in the late 1940’s and they produced and directed the shows which were performed annually. Iris did all the stage make-up and she was in the church hall sewing rings for the stage curtains on her 21st birthday. The shows included comedy sketches and on one occasion they chose to do the ballet 'Sylvia' and spent time working out the choreography. The curtains opened with a scout wearing a frou-frou skirt and hobnail boots in a ballet pose with a wisp of false hair hanging over the neck of his singlet. He kept a dead pan face.

Iris and Ken got engaged in 1949 and married in 1951 at St Johns Palmers Green (where Iris had been a Guide). They lived in Whetstone, North London after they got married in a top floor flat.

Before the family were born, Iris and Ken went camping with the Scouts all over the UK and abroad. They had some amazing adventures camping, walking and climbing in places such as Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and abroad in countries such as Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria.

Iris and Ken did a lot of cycling on bikes. On one occasion in 1951 they took the bikes on a train from London to Salisbury and then cycled to Lyme Regis. Other times they would just leave north London and cycle around the St Albans’ area.

Their other mode of transport was a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike and Ken added a sidecar to the motorbike which Iris sat in with the children when they went out on trips.

They had a close connection with scouts from Finland because in 1956 there was an exchange between Wood Green Scout District and Helsinki. There was an opportunity for scouts from the Wood Green District to fly to Finland and a group of scouts were selected to go including Ken as the leader in 1956. Ken met Paula Koho who was his translator and a leader trainer who could speak many languages. She was married to Laurie (Lassie) Koho who was a Captain in the Finish Army and was the Finish International Scout Commissioner. He later became a Lieutenant General in the United Nations and was a military advisor to UThant of the UN. Iris and Ken remained friends with them and travelled to Finland several times staying in Helsinki and then Lappeenranta near the Russian border. Laurie and Paula would meet up with Iris and Ken when Laurie’s duties brought them to England.

The next year Iris and Ken did a motorcycle tour and visited the World Scout Jamboree in Sutton Coldfield. There were scouts from Finland attending. The Jamboree went down with Asian Flu and the Finish contingent were too ill to travel. They were looked after by Ken, and the Finish awarded him the Iron Medal.

In 1954 Iris became pregnant and she gave up her job at Hulton Press. Stephen was then born in 1955. She then became pregnant in 1957 but did not know she was carrying twins until much later in the pregnancy. The doctors put her on a diet as she had been gaining too much weight! She gave birth naturally to twins Janet and Mary (who were born 8 minutes apart) in 1958 and ironically they were recorded as the third heaviest twins born at Barnet General Hospital at the time!

Iris and Ken then moved to Wigmore, Gillingham Kent in 1960 as they needed a larger house to live in and a location where their children could grown up with space and the countryside. Wigmore Road was still a hop track and unmade and the area was perfect for their children to explore the surrounding woods and fields.

Iris took on a job to help top up the income and she became an advertising representative for the Chatham News and Standard (as it was then) in 1964. One of her clients was John Weir Funeral Directors and she would visit regularly to check-in with John on his advert requirements. They would enjoy a joke or two but the comment was it would be bad for business to leave the premises laughing!
Ken continued to work in London and was promoted through the ranks and became the senior manager of the Post Office Counters in East Central London District based in King Edward Building, the main post office in London. Ken commuted into London catching the train from Gillingham railway station and latterly Rainham from 1960 until he retired in 1985.

When Iris and Ken moved to Kent, they said they wouldn’t do any more scouting. They had a very young family and a new build house. They heard however from a couple of sources that the local 8th Gillingham Scout Group needed help and as they were both fully trained scout leaders, they went along and offered assistance and eventually Iris became the Akela of the Cubs and Ken became the Group Scout Leader. The Group went from strength to strength. Iris and Ken were with the 8th Gillingham from 1964 until 1975. In that time, the scout group’s numbers swelled from 40 to 170. A senior scout unit (now known as Venture Scouts or Explorer Scouts) was established because so many young boys enjoyed the activities being provided and as they got older they needed a venture unit set up. The Venture Scouts became known as the Agathoid. The cub pack had to be split into A and B cub packs as it had got so large.

After leaving 8th Gillingham Group, Iris became Assistant District Commissioner Cub Scouts and Ken was ADC Senior Scouts. They continued in these roles until they retired. Iris and Ken became joint DC for Gillingham in 1980.
Iris and Ken were each presented with the Silver Acorn Award in 1979 recognising their quality of service. In 1989 Ken and in 1990 Iris were each presented with the Silver Wolf Award which is the highest award made by the Scout Association "for services of the most exceptional character." It is an unrestricted gift of the Chief Scout.
More to follow