Pauline Cameron

Pauline Cameron

Pauline Cameron (1945-) is the daughter of Len Savage (1921 -2009), Churchwarden and builder who was a well respected and prominent figure in Turvey.

Pauline Cameron’s father, Len Savage, and family lived in Turvey from the middle of the 1800s.  Her grandfather Leonard Montague Savage began the building firm continued by her father.  Before she was born, her mother was a nanny at Laws House, then a Red Cross nurse back in Northamptonshire.  The family moved into a house in Vine Row when she was ten months’ old.  When she was four years of age, the family were mainly living in May Road, occasionally staying with her grandfather in Carlton Road to assist him.  She spent summer holidays on her mother’s family farm, recalling drawing their markings on a Government record form to distinguish the cows, as well as churning the milk to make butter pats.

Pauline describes drawing the markings of new-born calves.

She passed her eleven plus from Harrold School so was sent to Stratton School near Biggleswade with a very long bus journey.

Pauline describes the bus journey to school

At the age of 14 years, she ran the church Sunday School, including working on crafts with the children.  The family later lived in Elmwood.  During her A-level year she decided to enrol as a nurse, joining the Navy as a Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nurse first in Gosport, then in Malta.  When she wanted to marry, she had to leave the service, returning to Turvey in 1970 to live in Grove Road, then briefly in Elmwood.  She helped to set up the Mother and Toddler group as well as becoming Playgroup supervisor when her boys were small.  She moved to Poddington in 1985 but maintained active contacts in Turvey.  She was the practice nurse at Harrold Surgery from the mid-seventies for ten years, briefly worked in a private nursing home then became a practice nurse in Bedford for 19 years.  For some years, she was a Tax Officer.  Since retiring, she has continued to be a volunteer driver for Harrold surgery.

A transcript of the interview can be found here.