Marjorie Harrison

  General Notes:

Marjorie was born to a farming family, and apparently enjoyed an idyllic childhood growing up on farms - initially with parents and latterly spending more time on her grandparents' farms in Cumberland. I believe that she was brought up in Kelsick, near Wigton.
The family moved to a cottage as Marjorie grew up, again in Cumberland. Marjorie showed a natural aptitude for languages, studying I believe 4 or 5 languages at school, including French, German and Latin. She was also a regular church attender, and occasionally played the organ at church as required.
Marjorie worked briefly at a papermill, but then went away to train as a teacher, working as a teacher in a few schools in Cumberland.
She travelled widely in later life and this started in earnest, when she applied for a job as a teacher with Forces children in Germany in the fifties. Her German was apparently so good that she was mistaken for a native German speaker on a number of occasions. She lived in the Officer's mess, with all attendant privileges, but actually gained some of her greatest satisfaction from working with lower ability children in her spare time.
When she returned to the UK, she came to teach in a Special School in Reading, where she became interested in the Baha'i faith. She was told that Jesus was also esteemed highly in the Baha'i faith and this made her transition to the newer religion easier.
She met her husband-to-be, Arnold Pitt at a Baha'i Summer Convention in Harlow, Essex (I assume that Arnold may have been in attendance at that particular conference since his brother, Bron Pitt was living in Harlow at the time).
She moved to a couple of different places, working (if I understand things right) in Baha'i work at Nottingham. She married Arnold Pitt on 20th August 1966 at Carlisle, with a Baha'i wedding ceremony.
One of the tenets of the Baha'i faith is to work towards a common language for the whole world and this (combined I guess with Marjorie's love of languages) led both Marjorie and Arnold to work at learning Esperanto. Through this they have travelled widely, starting in the late 60s/early 70s with a trip to Hungary in their Morris Traveller, to meet other Esperanto speakers. At this time, very few westerners made the trip "behind the Iron Curtain" to Communist states. Marj and Arnold made a great many friends over the years through Esperanto and travelled to many interesting countries. They also had guests through Esperanto and Bahai'ism at their various homes.
Arnold and Marjorie moved to the Midlands, living for a time at Kidderminster and in 1971 moved to Shobdon, where Marjorie would later become Deputy Headmistress. She loved teaching and according to the school caretaker, who we met at Marjorie's funeral, was an excellent teacher. Marjorie's eyesight started to fail and around 1980, she was faced with not only the difficult decision whether to continue teaching with failing eyesight, but indeed, with the distinct possibility that she could go totally blind. In this context Marjorie decided to give up the profession that she loved and retire early on grounds of ill health.
After retirement Marjorie and Arnold kept up an active social life, being involved in a wide variety of community groups - including the Women's Institute (Marjorie), Liberal Club (Arnold was on the committee for a time). Marjorie developed interests such as knitting and birdwatching after retirement - knitting many products for local charities.
Her health started to fail in her final years and she was confined more and more to the house.
We, as her nephew and nieces, remember Marjorie very fondly, with love. I was chatting with my sister today and we both agreed on the thing we will remember Marjorie most for - her infectious laugh. She was full of life, always laughing and showing a keen interest in people and is very much missed.

The above is a collection of memories and thoughts, based around my recollections of Marjorie. The structure and alot of the detail regarding places and employment was informed by the eulogy that was given at Marjorie's funeral earlier today.

Alistair Pitt. 4th March 2010.
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  Noted events in her life were:

• Occupation: Teacher.

• Obituary: Published in the Hereford Times, 25/02/10. Deaths

Marjorie Pitt

Published in the Hereford Times on 25 February 10

PITT Marjorie passed away on February 22, 2010 aged 80 years of Newtown, Nr Leominster. Former Deputy Headmistress of Shobdon School. Deeply missed by Husband and family. Inter-Faith funeral service to be held at Hereford Crematorium on Thursday March 4, at 2.15pm. Family flowers only. Donations if desired for Macmillan Nurses or Marie Curie may be sent to R W Mann and Son, 51 West Street, Leominster, HR6 8EP

Marjorie married Living