Remarkable life of Anne Carmichael -- one of the most respected women in Horncastle

Anne Carmichael, widow of a former Olympian, Angus Carmichael, passed away just before Christmas at the age of 96.

She lived at the same house on Prospect Street for 63 years and had a strong connection to multiple organisations within Horncastle and Woodhall Spa as a much-loved member of the volunteering community.

Her funeral service this month was framed by a biography of Anne, penned by her daughter, Dianne Carmichael. It touched so many that copies of it have been requested by friends, relatives and colleagues.

The biography revealed that Anne was born in Glasgow’s West End in August 1929, but much of her childhood was spent in Shanghai, China, where her father, Andrew Ewing, was general manager of the tramways there.

Every five years, he was granted six months’ leave when the family would return to Scotland, necessitating one of the many intercontinental sea voyages that Anne undertook in the 1930s and 1940s.

The long journey to Scotland lasted four to six weeks, either via the Suez Canal or across the Pacific Ocean, then by train across the USA or Canada and another sea journey via the Atlantic Ocean!

Anne’s education fitted around all these treks, and she estimated that she attended 11 different schools on three different continents!

The outbreak of World War Two led to Anne moving to Canada with her mother and brother (who joined the Canadian Air Force), while her father remained in Shanghai.

He was eventually able to return to the UK, but not until a year later could Anne and her mother join him – and even then only after a wartime convoy across the fogbound Atlantic that took 18 days.

Her father found work in Coventry and the family settled in nearby Warwick, with Anne going to school in Leamington Spa, where she met a lifelong friend, Jane.

After the war, her father was seconded to Singapore to help with the restoration of public transport there, but Anne and her mother returned to Canada, where her brother Walter, to whom she was very close, encouraged her to join him at university and, in 1951, she graduated in anthropology.

A year later, in a ceremony at Dunblane Cathedral in Scotland, Anne married Angus, whom she had met at a family event in Glasgow and who was to be her husband for 61 years. They initially settled in Cartmel, Cumbria, where Angus was a vet’s assistant.

A talented footballer, who played in the Scottish League for Queen’s Park, Angus had played for Great Britain’s team at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Injury ended his career and he concentrated on becoming a vet.

To further his career, Angus, Anne and their two young children, Dianne and Drew, moved to Lincolnshire in 1955, first to Woodhall Spa and then to Horncastle. A third child, Fiona, to complete their family, was born in 1959.

While in Woodhall, Anne joined the golf club where, as a keen player (despite contracting polio earlier in her life), she served on various committees and was ladies’ captain in 1997. Dianne said “her tenure is fondly remembered to this day”.

With four friends, she also co-founded the Woodhall Wednesday Luncheon Club, of which she was chair for three years.

She was joined in Woodhall too by father Andrew and mother Ima, who retired to the town. Her dad put his accountancy expertise to good use at St Peter’s Church.

On moving to Horncastle, Anne volunteered to help the Meals On Wheels service for 19 years and became divisional president of the British Red Cross Society for 15 years, organising an annual fundraising collection among 70 mid-Lincolnshire villages.

She viewed her work for the Red Cross as gratitude for the sterling way it had helped with the repatriation of her father during the war.

Anne was also secretary of the Red Cross Darby and Joan Club for 15 years, vice-chair of the district’s Age Concern branch and a member of the Friends Of St Lawrence School organisation.

Her concern for the elderly even led to her embarking on an Open University diploma in the 1970s on the issues of an ageing population. She graduated with distinction.

Culture and heritage were among Anne’s other interests, with many trips to museums, exhibitions and shows in London. She took a keen interest in Lincoln Cathedral and sat on its preservation council committee.

In 1979, Angus’s career took him to Hertfordshire, where they settled for ten years, while retaining their Horncastle home. Even there, Anne became involved in the local community, serving as a guide at the stately home. Hatfield House.

When her husband retired, they returned to Lincolnshire and, for the next 15 to 20 years, they enjoyed a host of holidays, including cruises, trips to Scotland and to see her brother in the USA, as well as happy times with five grandchildren and an extensive circle of friends.

Angus died in 2013 and, ten tears later, Anne moved to a care home in Cambridgeshire to be closer to most of her family.

At the home, she stunned staff with stories from her life. A life that also included an invitation in 1951 to Buckingham Palace to be presented to Princess Elizabeth, who was to become Queen only one year later, and memorable trips in retirement on both the supersonic airliner, Concorde, and the majestic ocean-liner, the QE2.

Much mourned, Anne leaves five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, as well as her three children.