Edna Burton

I am very grateful to Canon Charles for providing this appreciation of the late Edna Burton. The photograph was kindly provided by Audrey Evans, and shows Edna with Audrey's husband, Terry, both of whom have done so much to make St Teresa's such a beautiful and smooth-running place.



When I came to St Teresa’s in February 1999 there was no doubt who was the “responsable” in the French sense. Edna Burton was sacristan, and she remembered everything and prompted all manner of human contacts. I was quickly enrolled into the Sheila Kaye-Smith Society, and through Edna I met Peter Hinchcliffe who lived in the coachhouse in Little Doucegrove Lane where the Sheila and her husband, Penrose Fry, set up the original Mass Centre before the building of the church in 1935. Peter was a member of the Sheila Kaye-Smith Society but was not a Catholic. He had navigated Halifax Bombers during the Second World War, and was one of only two survivors when his plane was shot down over Belgium. Peter wrote a book about the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, and several studies of German night-fighter aces. Peter, Edna and I formed a small informal lunch club which met monthly. We took it in turns to to host the meetings. Edna was not the best cook!
Edna loved St Teresa’s. In addition to her regular services to the community, she gave the tablet on the wall by the reconciliation room. This tablet depicts St Teresa plucking her rose petals - symbols of her little acts of charity, her small way. And we can relate St Teresa’s rose petals to Edna’s little way of service to the parish and wider community.

When Edna died we held a collection to provide a permanent memorial to her in the church. This issued into the set of Stations of the Cross which Terry Evans mounted on wooden plaques and installed at St Teresa’s.