My mother, Pat Fleetwood-Walker, who has died aged 95 from a stroke, was a volunteer in Birmingham right up to the end of her life.
Following a career in teaching and university administration, she became a member of the Prevention First Citizens’ Panel, a group of volunteers supporting Birmingham city council’s commissioning process for services and working to maintain and raise standards of support for vulnerable people. A lifelong carer for her daughter, Pat was a strong advocate for those with vulnerabilities and used her visionary thinking to champion their needs.
Born in Birmingham, to Katie (nee Lang), who helped her parents run a sweet shop, and Karl Fleetwood, a mechanical engineer, Pat was lucky to survive her early years, when she almost died of pneumonia. Her parents encouraged a keen interest in the world and, in an age where few women entered higher education, Pat – a pupil at St Paul’s convent school in Edgbaston – won a scholarship in 1947 to study botany at Birmingham University.
She went on to complete a PhD in fungal crop diseases, and later, in 1987, a master’s in education to enhance her work developing innovative teaching materials for Birmingham University medical school.
As an akela leading a cub pack in a deprived area of the city, Pat met and married Colin Fleetwood-Walker, a scout leader, in 1953. Colin was an architect, eldest son of the portrait painter Bernard Fleetwood-Walker and a survivor of the second world war Arctic convoys. They had six children: Susan (born as Pat’s PhD was completed), Judith, Becky, Johnny, Ruth and me.
The 1970s and 80s were a turbulent time for the family with many life-changing challenges: not least of which was the death of Johnny at 17 in 1976 in a motorbike accident. This was followed by Colin’s chronic illness and early death in 1987.
As the main breadwinner, Pat taught science in secondary schools, worked with the educational services team at Birmingham University, and then at Aston University in Birmingham. There she was head of extension education, working with academics (in both the US and UK) and industry to develop tutored video instruction and materials to help innovation in businesses.
Pat retired in 1994 but continued to work in promoting sustainable communities in the West Midlands. The Prevention First Citizens’ Panel, on which she had served since around 2004, was awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service in November 2023.
Born as women got the vote, she was a long-term Labour party member and delighted to see them win with 11 women serving in the cabinet just days before her death. An academic and positive thinker, Pat attributed her long life to the NHS, luck, and family and friends.
She is survived by five children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-granddaughters.
