Margaret Bale (16 Oct 1959 - 18 Feb 2020)

Margaret was born and was brought up in Ashtead near St George’s Church. Indeed, she lived in Ashtead all her life. She worshipped at St Giles Church and went to school at Barnett Wood Lane Primary and City of London Freemans Schools.

She went on to Langham Secretarial College and her first job was as the PA to the Company Secretary of SG Warburg, a London-based investment bank, before moving on to work in the Chairman’s Office at the Corporation of Lloyds as PA to the Deputy Chairman and as Events Organiser. She was to meet the Queen and Prince Philip at the topping-out ceremony at the current Lloyds building.

She met her husband, Mike, through bell ringing – Mike at St Martin of Tours Epsom and Margaret at St Giles Ashtead and they were married in 1984 at St Giles. Their first home was in Ashtead in a house which needed significant work to drag it out of the 1930s. Children followed soon after with first Jacqueline in 1987 and then Richard in 1988. Edward, their first grandchild arrived in 2017.

While the children were at school, Margaret worked for Usborne Books, working from home and arranging parties and events selling their books. She won several awards for her sales prowess and was responsible for a team of sales people. In 2002, Margaret joined the Christian charity ‘Through the Roof’ as their Administration and Events Manager where she would stay for 17 years. Her time here amply illustrates Margaret’s caring nature as well as her “super-efficient organisational skills” which the TTR magazine noted in a tribute to her. Part of the job involved running annual holidays for severely autistic and disabled children and their families at Dalesdown in Horsham.

Margaret started ringing at the age of 12, learning at St Giles, Ashtead and, after marrying Mike, transferred allegiance to St Martin’s Epsom. She was Tower Secretary for many years at both towers and also served as Guild Secretary to the Guildford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers. One of the events she planned and ran at Epsom was a sponsored abseil down St Martin’s bell tower to raise funds for refurbishment of the bells.

Alongside Mike, Margaret was instrumental in teaching, organising and inspiring new and existing ringers, including helping start up 3 new bands at Merrow, Ockley and West Clandon.

She was an active member of the congregation at St Martins and was always willing to take on jobs or help in any way. She loved walking the dog, was a member of the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths and had been a member of Ashtead Choral Society, local hand-bell ringing groups, a diabetic group, and a badminton club.

For 50 years Margaret was a type one diabetic, managing her own medication since she was a child, and with none of the long-term side effects often experienced. It was a condition that she coped with bravely and superbly despite the occasional 'hypo'.

In September 2019, Margaret took early retirement from Through the Roof with thoughts of the happy prospect of spending more time with her parents, her grandson Edward and more time simply relaxing and enjoying life with Mike and the rest of her family.

Margaret was diagnosed with Cancer in early October 2019 but it took the hospital several weeks to identify the origin of the tumour (the stomach) and determine a treatment plan. Chemotherapy did not start until January and after only one round experienced so many side effects that further treatment was no longer possible. She died peacefully at the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher at 10:00 on 18th February 2020, with all her immediate family beside her.

Margaret's funeral took place on Monday 9th March at St Martin's Epsom and was attended by 328 people. Almost half of the attendees were fellow bell ringers.

May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace and rise in glory.