Freda May Gallagher (23 Nov 1920 - 30 Mar 2016)

Freda, you were the best. Many thanks for supporting my mother when times were bad for her.

In fond memory of Freda Gallaher, who taught us at Alderman Newton's School in Leicester in the late 1940s.

We have many happy memories of Freda from working with her at South Craven School. She was always so positive and cheerful with a lovely sense of humour. After her retirement, we sometimes met whilst shopping in Skipton and always enjoyed catching up with her during a pleasant chat. Conversations with Freda were so lively and entertaining and she will be remembered for her amusing stories by many of us. Unfortunately, we were not able to attend Freda's funeral to pass on these thoughts, along with our deepest sympathy to Freda's daughter Margaret and her family. We are thinking of you though at this sad time.

Freda was my Mum 's (Dorothy Tilstone nee Hanson) cousin. I never met Freda yet heard of her often in recent years. Mum held her in high regard and will miss her longterm friendship.
Condolences to Margaret and family.

I first met Freda when I taught Margaret and she attended parent's evenings at Skipton Girl's High School. Over the years I grew to know her as a friend and colleague at South Craven, a fellow NUT committee member and as some one who always had a positive outlook telling many funny stories of her experiences. Freda was a lady in the truest sense of the word. I had the greatest respect for her and shall miss our chats at reunions.

In memory of a kind history teacher.
Sheila Kirton

It was my great pleasure to have known Freda. We first met when I started teaching at South Craven School in the language department back in 1972 and then to work with her for a number of years before her retirement. As a young teacher back in those days you were always happy to seek help and advice wherever you could get it and Freda was always willing to pass on her experience. South Craven was a growing school at that time and it was delightful to be surrounded by a mixture of both experienced and young teachers. French had always been a great love for Freda and she passed on that love to many students. We often had a laugh and a joke with her about the “new technology” of reel to reel tape recorders and she often called for help when the tape became jammed! She was a truly delightful lady and colleague and I am sure I speak for all those who worked with her at South Craven when I say how sorry we were to hear of her passing and how lucky we were to have known her.

In affectionate memory of Freda, my form and History teacher in Leicester in the late 1940s.

What I most enjoyed in Freda's company was her gift as a "raconteuse". I have known no one else who could turn incidents and travels into such interesting and fascinating tales.

Freda was a thoroughly nice lady. It was a privilege to work with her. She always showed great interest in what I was doing in retirement. I always had a deep respect for her.

This is written for Freda from Melbourne, Australia, on behalf of my mother Janet Keuneman (née Cowell) and of myself David Keuneman.

Freda’s death has meant for Janet the loss of her oldest and dearest friend, and for me, David, the loss of my godmother.

Freda Hanson and Janet Cowell met some eighty odd years ago when they began as pupils in Form One at Burnley High School for Girls. Freda was just seven weeks older than Janet was and, as they would continue to joke between themselves all their lives, there was nothing Janet could do about it – Freda would always remain seven weeks her senior.

Best friends they quickly became, and best friends they remained. These two bright studious girls achieved more than girls often did in those days, let alone girls from Burnley. Freda went on to Oxford to study humanities, Janet via London to Cambridge to study physics.

As they became independent young women, Freda’s and Janet’s lives began to move in different geographical directions. Janet married soon after taking her degree, and a couple of years later her young David was born in Burnley. Freda became his godmother. But as the war ended, both young women deserted Lancashire. Janet with her husband Arthur and fledgling family took off to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for some years and finally to Australia; Freda in time crossed the Pennines to teach in alien Yorkshire, where later she married Pat and stayed on in Skipton.

Freda and I, David, saw a little more of each other in the late 1950s since for a while I went to secondary school in England, where I lived with my Burnley grandparents (Janet’s parents) who had recently retired to the coast just out of Blackpool. Trips over to Yorkshire cemented my connection with Freda. Then, and over the years, I came to admire her enthusiasm and her energy in pursuit of travel, history, music and the wonders of the world in general. In my late teens my own world then moved to be centred in Australia where my family, Janet, Arthur and my brother Gerald had finally settled. Freda and I remained in touch by mail, and from time to time I would see her when I visited the northern hemisphere again.

The last time I actually saw Freda was when Helen and I, on a visit to Europe in 1999., drove to Skipton and spent a couple of days with her in Carelton Avenue. Like other visitors, we were taken on the ritual drive through the dales on a Sunday. Freda, ever-prepared, had brought the basket with thermos of tea. However as the appointed mid-afternoon time for tea approached, Freda realised that she had forgotten to bring milk.

Not a shop to be seen anywhere near, but as we approached a tiny village, Freda spotted a lady standing idly by the front gate of her cottage. We pulled over, Freda leaned out of the passenger-side window and explained our plight, asking quite firmly if the lady had enough milk in the house to fill up one of our cups. Who could refuse? We got our milk; smiles all round and profuse thanks given; so when we reached the intended look-out spot up ahead, the cups of tea happened without a hitch. What displays of Yorkshire resourcefulness and hospitality.

Back to Freda and Janet. The years and the miles did not dampen their friendship at all. Frequent letters and periodic long-distance phone calls kept them in touch. Freda came to Australia to visit Janet and Arthur and to help them celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. The phone calls continued to take place until both were well into their nineties. Janet too was widowed by now and like Freda living independently at home, but in the last couple of years they each of them needed to move into residential care. Even then however there was a sense of concern for each other arising from that lifelong togetherness of spirit which was founded back in those youthful nineteen-thirties days at the Girls’ High School in Ormerod Road, Burnley.

We who remain shall miss Freda dearly.

Freda - or Miss Hanson as she was then - was our History teacher and for 3 years our Form teacher at Alderman Newton's Girls' Grammar School in Leicester. Much later she told me this was her first teaching job. She was a good teacher but stood no nonsense. She was always smartly dressed and well organised and we enjoyed her lessons. Apart from teaching she had wide cultural interests and good friends amongst the staff. In 2010 I visited her for a couple of days at her home in Skipton and we visited Fountains Abbey. I am not surprised she lived to be 95: she would have refused to go any sooner! My old school friends and I are now 81 and still in touch, but scattered about the country. I know Sheila, Margaret and Barbara would like to be associated with this message. Pat (nee Cooper)

Saddened to hear of the passing of Freda, who I met some years ago as I am a friend of her daughter Margaret, from university days. I well remember her warm, welcoming nature. Freda always wanted you to come in for a cup of tea and a chat - and she never once seemed short of something to talk to you about. Even in her latter years her mind was clearly razor sharp. I will never forget, in particular, a trip up into the Dales in which I was involved. Margaret had some French friends over to stay, I had a car and would I take Freda, Isabella and Harriet in with me, which I of course did. Well, I don't think the lovely lady was quiet a single moment (am I right, girls?) and it was all I could do to follow the various anecdotes she was recounting (in such elaborate detail) because I was doing my best to follow the party in front, who, unlike me, knew the way to Hawes. The day ended with Fish & Chips from Betty's (to give the French visitors a real British treat) ...and I do believe she was the life and soul of that party too!