Anne Davey RIP
It was with huge sadness that we learned of Anne Davey’s death in May, after a short illness bravely borne.
Anne and Paul Davey’s first contact with the College was as parents when their daughter Rosie started at the school as one of the first girls to join Year 7. Anne quickly became a stalwart and leading light of the Parents’ Association, helping to organise everything from quiz evenings, murder mysteries and theme nights, to fetes and fairs, which meant that frequently she seemed to spend as much time at Princethorpe as those on the payroll! It was at this point that Anne developed a very strong affinity with the school and it became a place which she loved.
Anne’s gentle warmth, sense of proportion and quick humour rapidly won her many friendships, added to which she and Paul were natural hosts, often throwing parties for friends in their glorious garden, usually in celebration of another year’s committee work well done. They also owned the famous marquee which was loaned for so many Princethorpe events; it seemed to spend more time with the school than with the Daveys!
In 2002 Anne was appointed as College Bursar, a role which she carried out until retirement in 2011, with her characteristic enthusiasm, efficiency and industry, frequently working on Saturdays as well, seeking neither recompense nor recognition. She was able to get on with everyone, regardless of the part they played and her amiable, mildly self-effacing and modest disposition earned universal respect and she became the confidant of many. She seemed to understand young people particularly well, too, often welcoming boarders into their home for school holidays and making sure that the youngsters had their fair share of good parties; many became lifelong friends. Anne was tolerant, good-humoured, immensely patient and kind. When things went wrong she had that unshakable faith that everything would turn out alright, which of course it usually did!
Anne was taken seriously ill in the spring, losing the battle with cancer only a few months later. She had planned her funeral perfectly to be just as she wanted: a lunch-time gathering in The Denbigh Arms followed by the service at St Edith’s Monks Kirby (with firm instructions for any glowing eulogy to be left out) and simple burial in the churchyard, concluding with a marvellous reception back at the family home. Testimony to the esteem in which Anne was held, there were many Princethorpians at her send-off: from colleagues and friends through to other parents and former pupils. It was a sad but also thoroughly uplifting occasion which celebrated Anne’s life so fittingly on a gloriously sunny June afternoon in the Warwickshire countryside, which she so loved.
We send our condolences not only to her family and mother, but especially to Paul and Rosie who also share Anne’s love of Princethorpe.
