From November 7, 2003 An ex-Surrey Comet reporter and founder member of the Kingston Liberal Synagogue died aged 81.

Pamela Fletcher Jones MBE died of cancer last week 10 years ago.

She had touched a great many people in the community with her work for the Kingston Can Appeal and numerous other organisations.

She helped build Kingston Arts Festival from its humble beginnings in 1984 and was a founder member of the synagogue, remaining active in administration from 1967 right up until her final days.

Elizabeth Kelly from the synagogue said: “A painful struggle against cancer in her final years saw Pam typically throwing herself into fundraising for Kingston Can Appeal.

“She is survived by Norman, her husband of more than 50 years, and mourned by him and a vast extended community of family and friends.”

Mrs Jones was born the daughter of a Fruit and Vegetable Commission agent in Covent Garden in 1922.

Her childhood was marred by illness, in particular a bout of peritonitis, which left her unable to have children. She trained as a shorthand typist and a nurse, and spent the war in the RAF and working as a naval nurse.

After demobilisation, she became a respected journalist, writing for Empire News in the 1950s. This was followed by newsreel journalism for the Rank organisation, which saw her jetting across the UK and abroad to script and produce human interest shorts called Look at Life.

She joined the Surrey Comet and became renowned for the human touch in her reporting.

Even after her retirement in 1982, she regularly contributed to the paper, especially its gardening column.

Mrs Jones was very proud of her Jewish roots, which led partly to the foundation, in 1976, of the Kingston Group for Racial Understanding, now Kingston Race and Equalities Council.

In 1990 she was instrumental in the formation of the Dittons Branch of the Council for Christians and Jews, and served for years as publicity officer.

 

50 YEARS AGO: November 9, 1963

Train services from Waterloo to parts of Surrey, Portsmouth, and the west country were seriously delayed after a goods train derailed at Surbiton station. The train, with three empty and two full wagons, became derailed in a shunting movement in the railway sidings.
25 YEARS AGO: November 11, 1988

A confidential financial assessment of British Aerospace revealed Kingston’s Richmond Road site would have been worth £50m if sold for housing. BAe maintained Kingston jobs were secure, but the survey by Warburg Securities showed a major asset-stripping exercise could not be ruled out.
10 YEARS AGO: November 7, 2003

Surbiton station won an award for its cleanliness, hanging baskets and its pleasant and helpful staff. The station scooped the best large station accolade at a South West Trains ceremony. The prize included £1,000 to spend on equipment or an initiative to benefit passengers and staff.

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