Bill & Madeline Cleaver

For Bill Cleaver's acticles about the weather click Weather Report. 1986 to 1996 inc. covered

Bill was a meteorologist at Bomber Command, Walters Ash, (just in our parish). He wrote regularly about the weather in Hallmark, also about gardening under the title "From the Potting Shed". Bill was the representative for The Horticultural Society on the Village Hall Committee from 1985 to 1990.

Bill and Madeline Cleaver with their two sons, Roland and Jeffrey settled in Lacey Green in 1970.   “Settled” being the appropriate word, as they not only stayed here but actively participated in community life here for the rest of their lives.

Bill was a meteorologist for the RAF at Strike Command, formerly Bomber Command He regularly wrote about the weather in Hallmark, the village magazine.

Shown on the right one of the three meticulous summaries found in Bill's notebooks.

Perhaps less well known was the fact that he also regularly wrote a gardening page, which he signed “From the potting shed”, probably not wanting his name to be in the magazine too often.

Bill Cleaver represented The Horticultural Society on the Village Hall Committee in 1985 and 1986

Madeline wrote the report on behalf of The Womens Institute for Hallmark on 18 occasions in the 1980s and 1990s

Madeline wrote the report on behalf of Windmills WI (evening WI) for Hallmark 9 times between 1993 and 1996

Madeline, reported in Hallmark, here follows several interviews she had held with local people.

click Fred & Beatrice Dormer for Beatrice (Bea) Dormer, born 1890.

click George & Edith Walton for Edith Janes born 1897 who married Benjamin Robbins then married George Walton

click Frank & Maud Claydon as Frank, born 1905, remembers life in Lacey Green

click Mary Lawrence and Loosley Row Post Office

Clem Brown, a journalist who lived for a while in Lacey Green, met Bill and Madeline and sent the following report to Hallmark :-

Hallmark devotees will have seen Bill Cleaver's weather notes, a carry-over from an extensive "Met" career that led him into many adventures. He was attracted to the subject early in WW2 and joined the Met Office in 1941, with eventual retirement in 1980. Widespread travel resulted and Bill can list 52 ports of call and other stopping-off places. He mentioned Libya, Egypt, South Africa, Germany, and a variety of postings with the Navy, the Army and the RAF. A keen Rugby football player, he has taken the field in places as diverse as Tripoli, Alexandria and Stornaway.

After his first tour in Germany, Bill worked at the RAF Navigational School in Suffolk, went back to Germany for a while, and was then offered a post at Strike Command here at Walters Ash. He and Madeline were pleased at the prospect, having been impressed by the Bucks countryside. Hence the choice fell on Lacey Green, a move that has never been regretted.

Bill was born in Rugby, as his accent suggests, and Madeline comes from Birmingham. They married in 1958 and have two sons Roland and Jeffrey. Bill was at Birmingham for a while in the 50's and Madeline was secretary/PA to the sales manager of an engineering company there. They had musical interests in common and have since become strong supporters of Lacey Green Singers. Madeline's experience of singing and piano goes back to the age of eight, and she achieved her L.L.C.M. in her early 20's.

Local activities have claimed the Cleavers' interest for many years. Bill was a founder member of Lacey Green Singers, formerly the Community Choir, as well as Lacey Green Productions and The Horticultural Society (he has two allotments to cultivate).

Bill Cleaver Obituary 1998 by Michael Hardy (click Michael & Betty Hardy for more about Michael)

Bill and Madeline Cleaver moved to Lacey Green in 1971, and Bill retired nine years later in 1980 at the age of 57.

I first met him just 15 years ago, when we moved to Lacey Green. However, as I became involved in some of the local organisations, I very soon discovered that Bill was the person to ask where anybody lived or what they did, or what their interests were. He seemed to know everybody in Lacey Green and Loosley Row and, of course, they all knew him, whether they were true locals having lived here all their lives, or newcomers who had moved into the village. However, he had also got to know many people from other local villages and towns.

The number of people who knew and respected Bill was very clear to see at his Memorial Service at St Mary's Parish Church in Princes Risborough on Wednesday 2nd September 1998. I estimate there were 150 people in the church, and many others have told me that they unfortunately could not be there. It was a service of thanksgiving for Bill's life, and it is surely a great tribute to him, his organisational skills, and his interests that the items in the service had been fully discussed and agreed by Bill and Madeline beforehand. We heard mention of many of Bill's interests and Bnian Panter recalled some details of how in retirement Bill was able to tackle completely new skills, such as acting. To me the most memorable part of the service was a solo by Sally Edwards, as I suspect that singing was really Bill's favourite pastime. (click Brian & Nell Panter for more about Brian)

It is impossible to list all the activities with which Bill got involved, but there are two local organisations where I came into most contact with him. For over 17 years he served on the committee of Loosley Row and Lacey Green Horticultural Society from its foundation in January 1981. His fascination in gardening and the skills he developed for growing vegetables eventually led to him tending two allotment plots, and the sight of Bill and his wheelbarrow journeying between home and allotments became a very familiar one.

As in all he tackled, he tried to achieve the best results, and he would visit all the local horticultural shows, to examine the exhibits and meet the people who had grown them. He soon started taking his own exhibits along, and the number of items he brought to our own show seemed to increase every year. He was our show secretary since 1984 and despite the time he spent in organising the show, he managed to enter exhibits that earned him his name being engraved on our cups a total of 15 times, including 7 times on the Hughenden Cup. This is the overall award for the best vegetables, flowers and fruit, which Bill won seven years in succession from 1990 to 1996, despite increasing health problems over these years.

He also took a pride in growing his produce at minimum cost, using his own seeds or often returning from visiting gardens with a stock of seeds in his pockets, he would assure me that it was always with the owners full permission, of course.

I will always remember that when Bill and Madeline went on holiday to Cornwall before his runner beans had been planted out, the young bean plants would accompany them to benefit from his own personal care.

In my five years as chairman of our Horticultural Society, it was a pleasure to have Bill on our committee, and always willing to turn his hand to anything that needed to be done.

Bill became interested in the restoration of The Windmill and was a keen member of the restoration team in the early years of work on the mill. By the time I became secretary of the restoration committee, Bill was one of our most accomplished wardens, helping to show visitors around the mill, and he would always try and help me out when I had to find an alternative warden, often at very short notice. He reluctantly gave up helping at the windmill once the stairs were too much for him.

But Bill seemed to be involved in an endless number of other organisations, whether locally or on a wider basis. His singing skills were put to good use in a variety of ways, including the Lacey Green Church choirs with which he and Madeline became involved, but also with other choirs including Princes Risborough Music Society and Lacey Green Singers. I have also mentioned that Bill became interested in drama and over the years he played various roles for Lacey Green Productions. His singing and acting skills were combined when Bill and Madeline would go out to various clubs with their own special entertainment tailored for particular audiences.

I understand that he will always be remembered as the judge for competitions at Lacey Green WI meetings, being an especially keen volunteer when there was food to be judged. Bill represented the Horticultural Society on the Village Hall committee for many years, and the fact that he was our road's Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator was the sort of thing that was taken for granted.

Throughout his retirement, Bill maintained his strong views on particular subjects, never afraid to put them forward. He also kept up the interest he had gained in his work as a meteorologist, always recording the daily rainfall and temperatures in meticulous detail. He was always content to be at home, but when Madeline did persuade him to take her away on holiday, I was entrusted to record the weather for him, and Madeline has passed his records onto me, so I will have now have to try and continue them.

Bill suffered from increasing health problems in recent years, which largely affected his circulation. However, in his true spirit, he thought of other people's future and wanted them to benefit from any research which could be done on his ailments, and he became involved in helping the charities that are concerned with the problems from which he suffered. He had to make frequent visits and stays in various hospitals, but he would never talk about the treatment that he would have to endure, preferring to discuss which ward in a particular hospital would give him the best food. To the outside world he always appeared to remain remarkably cheerful, indeed only four weeks before he died, I took him to a meeting where he attentively sat in the front row and afterwards asked questions and made comments tinged with his usual sense of humour.

I feel privileged to have been asked to write about Bill, it is truly impossible to include all aspects of Bill's retired life, he was always so busy. If our phone rang around 10 o'clock in the evening, I always knew it could only be Bill with a question or comment about something that he was still working on.

In the spring of 1998, the loss of his grandson, who was more than 70 years his junior, seemed to be a turning point in Bill's own life, after which he bravely made plans for his own departure from this world. Walter Wiliam Cleaver died on the 14th August, after over 40 years of married life, and the thoughts of all who knew him are with Madeline and the rest of their family.

Hallmark 2009. Tribute to Madeline Cleaver by Rosemary Mortham.

Madeline and I first met about 35 yéars ago. She and Julia Beaumont had decided to re-found the St. John's Church Choir, and I was asked to join them. Madeline already knew that I enjoyed singing, as I belonged to the Princes Risborough Music Society, of which she was already a member.

What neither Julia nor she realised was that I was completely ignorant about music. When it came to singing anthems, I was totally lost. Madeline had to give up a lot of her time to teach me. Her help was also essential to Julia, who was full of ideas, but lacked much background knowledge.

The church choir flourished and a number of young people joined, including Madeline's son Jeffrey. It was not long before Julia decided to branch out into musicals. The first was Jerusalem Joy, a cantata for Easter. In spite of the comparative inexperience of the choir, she arranged for us to visit our French twinned village of Hambye, to give a performance there.

It was a visit fraught with problems. Most of us spoke little French, and our hosts spoke no English. Madeline and Bill were able to help, as it turned out that Hambye had been occupied by the Germans during the war, and they could converse fluently in German, having lived and worked there for some time. On the way home, the coach broke down, and we spent the night parked on the edge of the road. Uncomfortable as this was, it proved to be a great bonding experience for the choir.

On our return, Julia and Madeline were encouraged to teach us another musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This required a larger cast than the church choir could provide, so extra people were recruited locally. From this group was to develop both Lacey Green Productions and Lacey Green Singers, part of Madeline's legacy to our village. Madeline became a founder member of Lacey Green Singers and remained a member for most of our 26 years. It is nice to think that she was able to sing with us until the end, even though she was no longer able to stand.

I was one of the many people that she encouraged and coached. Although she was a very professional soloist herself, she was always generous in helping others to improve their singing, and attempt to sing solos themselves. Possibly one of her greatest successes was in teaching her husband Bill to sing bass. For many years they sang together to entertain groups, especially the local blind club, which was organised by her great friend Madeleine Forrester.

Bill had retired early, and for a long time he and Madeline became very active members of the community, participating in most village activities, and being founder members of the Horticultural Society. We often wondered if Bill had a premonition of the Raynaud's and Sjorgrens Syndromes which were to blight the end of his life. It was a bitter blow, but even so, they both faced this with a very positive attitude, throwing themselves into finding out as much as they could about the disease, and supporting fund raising into research into its causes and management.

My family was lucky to become friends of Bill and Madeline, and enjoyed many meals at their home. Madeline was a good cook, using the fresh produce from Bill's allotment. They were an intelligent couple, and one of them always won the quiz which we used to have after our New Year's Eve Party.

I was most grateful to Madeline when the time came for me to start singing alto. She seemed to sing this with ease, but I found it nearly impossible. She would sit beside me and sing the notes into my ear until I learned them. If I went wrong, she would give me a look which I will never forget! She was always patient and generous with her time and help, not only to me, but to many others. This is the thing that those of us who love to sing will remember about her. She knew what a joy it was to make music, and it easy to understand her request that Thank You for the Music should be sung at the service.

Hallmark 2009. Tribute to Madeline Cleaver by Jean Gabbitas

Newcomers to Lacey Green, seeing Madeline as she had become, would have been surprised to learn that this was the same lady, who most afternoons could be seen striding out on her constitutional along Main Road and Pink Road; and seeing her painfully crooked arthritic hands, would not have known that these same hands had for so many years played the piano to accompany the many friends to whom she gave singing lessons. | myself benefited in this way; for, in the very civilised gap between sending my first three children off to school and being blessed with the fourth, | would go each Tuesday moming to Madeline's, and she would patiently rehearse me through the choral work Mozart's Requiem in preparation for the evening session with Princes Risborough Music Society.

I have been asked this afternoon to speak on behalf of the Women's Institute, and our appreciation of her as a lifelong member. Like myself, she joined as a young housewife with her two sons in attendance at the village school. She entered into ail the usual activities, like baking scones and tea loaves when it came to her turn to prepare the refreshments.

She also enjoyed the intellectual pursuits, some of which remain on record. Her research into village history by interviewing elderly residents of Loosley Row and Lacey Green is recorded in the WI publication "The Chiltern Hundreds". She would Speak to me about this with much glee, and seemed to me at that time an expert in the family trees and marital connections of theoriginal village families.

Furthermore, together with Kathleen Turner, she volunteered to carry out a detailed survey of Lacey Green and Loosley Row, as far as Bradenham tum, as part of the "New Doomsday”. Together, they explored, interviewed and recorded industrial and social activities. This nationwide Survey was Collected and recorded, and we have some of their findings in our WI photograph album.

Madeline would tum her hand to poetry, and write in support of the many campaigns carried out by the WI, for, as you all know, Madeline took a keen interest in current affairs, and held strong opinions.

Finally, two specially memorable contributions must be mentioned. A few years ago, while still in good voice, she entertained us at our Christmas lunch with Songs from the Shows, which she sang beautifully and with great expression.

And last, but not least, | must tell you that the WI will never be quite the same. For, once the Village Hall piano was abandoned, we had to sing unaccompanied and Madeline always gave us "the note" for Jerusalem, which we all sang.

MADELINE CLEAVER died in 2009. In her obituary Roland and Jeffrey wrote - - - -

Madeline may have been “just a housewife”, but her occupations were far from just that.   She helped to raise funds for the new Village Hall, finally built in year 2000; for Bucks Association for the Blind she sorted through piles of jumble, often trawling antiques fairs with items she felt should raise more money; she raised awareness and money for research into Raynauds disease which so badly affected our father; she joined The Womens Institute; helped restart, run and sing in The Church Choir, Lacey Green Productions, and Lacey Green Singers.    She found time to succeed in nominating her good friend Madeline Forrester for the MBE, in recognition of her work with the blind. (put 'charity' into Search for similar people & events)

Madeline kept up a voluminous correspondence with friends and family all over the world.    She embraced modern technology and became an enthusiastic e-mailer as her disabilities increasingly confined her to home.    She appreciated the invaluable help of many of her neighbours, such as Freda Dormer, Mary Lawrence and Helen Titchen.     She refused to move from her home, friends and community, keeping her spirits buoyant and her wit sharp as she managed with her two sticks and a lot of dogged determination.