OBITUARY – LEE CHADWICK

Lee Chadwick died at her home on Leiston Common on 22 March 2003 aged 93 years. She was born in 1909 in Battersea, London, one of eight children. At the beginning of the First World War her mother took the two youngest children to Whyteleaf in Surrey, which was then a very rural area. The freedom, and the love of wildlife, established in her childhood were to become the driving influences of her life. She graduated in English and Psychology at Bedford College in Regent spark, London. In 1937, after periods of teaching in both France and England she came to work at Summerhill School in Leiston.

Here she met Paxton ‘Chad’ Chadwick, who was teaching art. Her stay at Summerhill was curtailed by the outbreak of war, which caused the school to move to Wales. Lee and Chad did not move and the consequent loss of accommodation prompted them to build a very basic three bedroom house on the common at Leiston. Building regulations at the time required this to be low enough to be hidden by the gorse. It eventually became their home for the rest of their lives, and, of course, brought Lee into close contact with heathland. When Leiston Common was requisitioned by the MOD, and with Chad away serving in the armed forces, Lee moved to Sizewell where she worked for two years in the women’s machine shop at Garrett engineering works. Here she joined the TGWU. When the machine shop closed, the Land Army beckoned. It was not for long though: Lee readily answered the call of the Communist Party to take up the position of Assistant Industrial Organiser, a full-time post in Ipswich. She was the first ever communist elected onto Suffolk County Council.

In 1948 Lee and Chad were allowed to return to their home. They were able to buy two pieces of heath adjacent to their bungalow. They resisted the pressure to cultivate the land for food production, preferring instead to use one part for egg production, and the other for grazing, which preserved its heathland character. Chad worked as a wildlife illustrator for Penguin books. After Chad died in 1961 Cassell, the publisher, invited Lee to complete the “Pantoscope” series of educational paperbacks he had begun. Her research into aspects of fishing and fruit industries gave her the confidence to begin her own literary career. Subsequently she wrote a number of documentary books embracing a range of topics from the future of agriculture to lighthouses and lightships. Research for these took her from Rome to Cuba and to most of the lighthouses in the British Isles.

In 1975 Lee teamed up with artist Evangeline Dickson and Dobson Books to produce ‘In Search of Heathland’. This had been a personal ambition for many years. Its success is well known; its charm was due to the combination of Lee’s extensive knowledge of the underlying geologies and historical uses of heathland with her own observations of the biological complexities it supports and her passionate feelings for it. Lee joined the SNS in 1969. She was very much involved with the Suffolk Sandlings Group in its formative years in the 1980’s. Throughout her life Lee was a principled, tenacious and courageous woman , with strong political views. These qualities came to the fore when she acted as Environmental Witness for the opposition at the Sizewell ‘B’ public inquiry, speaking up for heathland where others failed to.

Eric Parsons writes:,
“If I’m entitled to a ha’porth of my own I would feel sure that Lee would like to have left a few words of advice for naturalists and conservationists. She was a very experienced campaigner and many folk used to refer to her for guidance with their own endeavours at campaigning. She would stress the importance of :-

1. individuals taking conservation directly and actively into Planning Departments, Council Chambers and Courts of Law in a campaigning manner.
   
2. not allowing, or expecting, professional conservation organisations to make the pace in conservation campaigns,
   
3. having accurate data available in support of any statements made in support of a campaign.
   

© 2003   Suffolk Naturalists' Society