Page 797 - Reading Mercury

th
Sat 5 March
THE BELLS OF ST. PAUL’S
The repair and the re-hanging of the bells of St. Paul’s Church, Wokingham is about
to begin, announces the rector (the Ven. Archdeacon Thorndike Shaw). A 1946
estimate put the cost at £257, and so far the Bell Fund has realised £240.

REMEMBERING “THAT MAN.”
The Tommy Handley Memorial Fund benefited by the proceeds of a concert
presented by the Wokingham Variety Players in the Town Hall on Thursday.
Production was by Mr. Dick Giles, and a large audience watched a lively show, which
included a Wild West interlude by the “Applejacs.”

DEATH OF MR. W. TEAKLE
Mr. William Teakle, well-known Wokingham monumental mason, died in a
Reading nursing home on Saturday, aged 74. His father founded the family business
at 26, Denmark Street, which now passes to his nephew, Mr. H.J. Langdower. Mr.
Teakle was keenly interested in the National Association of Master Monumental
Masons. He belonged to the Wokingham Bowling Club and to the Howard Palmer
Bowling Club, of which he was Green Ranger. He attended All Saints’ Church, where
he was a sidesman. Mr. Teakle’s wife died three years ago and he leaves no
immediate family.
The funeral was on Wednesday at All Saints’, the Rev. R.J. Siderfin officiating,
with Mr. Cusden, at the organ. Arrangements were by Messrs. J.B. Hall and Son.

th
Sat 9 April
WOKINGHAM’S MAYOR-ELECT
HON. MRS. CORFIELD AGAIN CHOSEN
The Hon. Mrs. Mary Hay Corfield, O.B.E. of Wemyss Lodge, Wokingham, the
town’s present Mayor, is to continue in the office for another year. Wokingham’s first
woman Mayor, Mrs. Corfield, during the past eighteen months, has won a high place
in the esteem of the townspeople by her keen and impartial patronage of every sort of
activity. She has launched several successful local appeals on behalf of charities,
among them a fund for the children of Europe, and, more recently, the Tommy
Handley Memorial Fund
A county Alderman, Mrs. Corfield was elected to the Berkshire County Council in
1935 as member for Wokingham East. In 1940 she was appointed to the Education
Committee, becoming acting chairman of the Higher Education Sub-Committee in
1941, and succeeding to the chairmanship on retirement of Lord Arthur Butler in
1944.
Mrs. Corfield was co-opted to Wokingham Town Council in 1942, and when she
contested her seat in 1945 she came third on the poll.
During the war, she was organiser of the Berkshire Hospital Supply Depot.
Chairman of the governors of Wokingham County Girls’ School and chairman of
Wokingham Evening Institute, she has also for many years been actively associated
with the work of the Mothers’ Union
Youngest daughter of the first Lord Inverclyde, Mrs. Corfield married first, in 1904,
the Rev. E. Murray Robinson, and later Canon Claud Corfield, Prebendary of Bath
and Wells, who died in 1926. She has one daughter, Miss Mary Burns Corfield, who
is her Mayoress. Mrs. Corfield has several literary publications to her credit, among

795