My wife, Sharon Mellor, who has died of an aneurysm aged 65, was a lecturer and justice of the peace who never lost her interest in the law.
Sharon was born in Battersea, south-west London, to Patricia (nee Harmon) and Peter MacQuarrie, a North Sea oil pipeline worker. At Rowan Road girls’ school in Mitcham she did not have much interest in academic work, but always raved about the outward adventure and equestrian courses. As a 16-year-old she worked as an office junior for Cadbury Schweppes in central London, taking three buses to get there.
In 1975 the family moved to Colne, Lancashire, where Sharon attended sixth form at Nelson & Colne College. When we met, she was working in a branch of Oddies bakery in Brierfield, and I was a customer. She qualified to be a state enrolled nurse (SEN) at Burnley general hospital in 1979, later becoming a registered mental health nurse in 1998. We were married in 1983.
After having two daughters, Sharon returned to Nelson & Colne College to take A-levels in 1986, and enjoyed studying and learning for the rest of her life. She was awarded her first degree, a bachelor of laws, by the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, in 1993. Later, she took a distance-learning course to gain a master’s in criminology from the University of Portsmouth, and then a PGCE at the University of Huddersfield in 1997, travelling there every day from Nelson, often after doing a 12-hour night shift as a nurse.
Sharon returned to Nelson & Colne College in 2000, this time to teach law, and shortly afterwards became a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. Between 2000 and her early retirement when lockdown hit in 2020 she said she had taught more than 1,000 students.
In 2004, she was appointed as a justice of the peace at the local magistrates court in Burnley and Pendle. Once, in the middle of the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009, the bench decided to forgive the debt of a man who confessed he was having difficulties paying, because (unlike the MPs) he had at least been honest.
Sharon and I both retired the same year. We spent time cultivating our garden, but most importantly enjoyed our new role as grandparents to Arwen, Gethin and Alba.
Sharon is survived by me, our daughters, Jody and Rosie, her three grandchildren and her sister, Patricia, and brother, Ross.
