Obituary

Jennifer Mary Statham was laid to rest in a private burial at Trowbridge Cemetery following a service at St John’s Roman Catholic Church in Wingfield Road on Tuesday.

Mrs Statham, 89, a devout Roman Catholic, died peacefully at home in Clarendon Road, Trowbridge, on Sunday, October 14.

She leaves her husband, Michael Statham, 90, and a brother, Peter Lansdown, 93, who lives in Torquay in Devon.

Mr Statham said: “My wife was a lovely woman. She was very unusual and everybody says she was a lovely person with a lovely smile.”

Mr Statham met his wife while both were working as junior librarians in the London University library. They married in 1958 and celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary in August but had no children.

Mrs Statham was born in Hilperton Road, Trowbridge, and was educated locally before leaving for London to become a librarian.

Her elder half-brother Michael Lansdown was the last member of the Lansdown family to edit the Wiltshire Times, which was founded by printer Benjamin Lansdown in 1854.

The newspaper remained in his family until great-grandson Michael, the fifth Lansdown to be editor and the fourth generation of the family to work on the paper, retired in 1981.

He sold the Wiltshire Times to Westminster Press which, in turn, later sold it to the Newsquest Media Group, its current owner.

After leaving the London University library, Mrs Statham worked for the King’s College library in London, before she and her husband retired to live on the Welsh border.

The couple came to Trowbridge in 2001 when Michael Lansdown died and took over the family home on Clarendon Road when his wife moved into a care home.

Mrs Statham was well-known locally as a volunteer at the Trowbridge Museum.

The family requested donations to the RSPCA in Mrs Statham’s memory. After the service a wake was held at the parish room at St John’s.