St Luke’s Church, Holbeck, has lost a very valued member of its congregation. Margaret Skelton passed away on 19 January 2015, at the age of 95.
Born in Glasgow, one of four sisters, she was billeted in Leeds as a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in the Second World War. Here she met her husband, Ken, and they began their married life in Beeston. Both she and Ken were active members of the Church; in the 1950s Margaret was the leader of the ‘young wives’, a group who met at church on Monday afternoons, and later she became involved in other activities such as the Thursday Group, raising funds for Wheatfields Hospice, and the Tuesday Group, who raise funds for the church.
Margaret was a stalwart of St Luke’s Church and could be relied upon to do many jobs including cleaning brasses, flower arranging, leading the Mothers’ Union, visiting the sick and reading Bible passages in Sunday services. She was a very generous person who supported numerous local fundraising events. She also helped regularly at St Luke’s Primary School, where she would listen to children read.
Margaret always attended church regularly up until her recent illness. The church was her life; she will be greatly missed by her church family and remembered with much affection.
This post was written by Peter Storey using our Create an article for South Leeds Life page.
R.I.P. you will be missed. You always had time for my little girls, always said hello and didn’t mind when one of them tried to climb on your knee xxxx
Known to me as Auntie Margaret, she was married to my godfather,Ken, my dad’s cousin. They played a great part in my young life, we left Beeston in 1953 and even though I was the first of many godchildren Margaret and Ken always made me feel special. Attending her funeral at St Luke’s brought back many happy memories and it was wonderful to hear in what high regard Margaret was held in that loving community. It would be hard to estimate how many lives Auntie Margaret touched in her long life, but I’m sure they were all enriched by having shared in the love of her truly Christian spirit.
During WW2 Margaret Pollock, ATS, lived with us in Gledhow, Leeds.
I and my two sisters were children at the time and loved having Margaret with us, she was so much fun and became an older sister to us. She left us after her marriage to Ken Skelton.
We all kept in touch with her over the intervening years and will miss her very much