Julie Patricia Scarborough died on 29th June 2025 her mass and burial was on 12th August 2025. In her time she raised over half a million pounds, received the News We Can Do It Awards in two categories and received the British Empire Medal for her services to the community.

Eulogy for Mum

Mum, Julie Patricia, was born on 21st March 1935 to Violet Lilian Crispin and Edward Patrick Crispin above her father’s Grocers shop in New Road, Portsmouth. She had an elder brother, Edward Michael, who was nearly 4 years older than Julie.

Julie’s parents ran the Grocer’s shop in New Road, Portsmouth until the early 1960s. During the war she was evacuated with her brother to Clanfield where they had a summer house. Whilst in Clanfield her brother Michael helped save her from being trampled by a charging bull by pulling her through a small hole in the hedge.

For the rest of her evacuation during the war they stayed on South End farm in Newtown near Soberton. She always had a soft spot for feeding the animals, especially the piglets, which she always loved and fostered her obsession with ceramic pigs! In 1942 she moved to Bernard Avenue in Cosham, where she became part of St Colmans congregation.

Unfortunately, Mum had very poor teeth due to a lack of calcium and had all her milk teeth removed at the age of 3. Worse still, her permanent teeth had to be removed when she was 13 and she had dentures fitted. This was probably the reason why Mum had selective mutism as a child. However, she made up for that in the rest of her life!

As a child she was also very ill with Tuberculosis, Double Pneumonia and Pleurisy and was in the Royal Hospital for a considerable time. She also missed out being an extra in the original St Trinian’s film, which many of her school friends at Daley’s School were in but she made up for with her acting skills as a teacher!

During her time in hospital Matron asked her to visit elderly people in the wards and recite poems and stories to them. Once better, she went round to church halls and community centres performing recitals and poetry, which she regularly received commendations for. Even in her last week of life she was still performing some of these to the carers and family when they visited!

When Mum went to Daley’s School ( St Theresa’s ) she was put down to a younger age group due to missing so much school whilst in hospital. She had to work very hard to catch up, which she did and more as she became a Pupil Teacher/Mentor. She passed her School Certificate with flying colours and then went on to La Santa Union College in Southampton. During her time there she was made Head Girl and put in charge of the Residential House as the Reverend Mother was too ill to do so.

In her teenage years Julie was very close to her cousin Pam and brother Michael, and they followed Portsmouth Football Club both home and away. She had a very loud football rattle which she used constantly during the games. She especially remembered attending when Portsmouth won the league in both 1949 and 1950. In latter years when Portsmouth were in financial difficulties she paid £1000 to them to help save them from oblivion! Her last time at Fratton Park in 2013 she was a Mothers Day mascot and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Julie finished top of her year at College and went on to a teaching job in Lewisham in London. These were the years of the Great Smog and Mum used to recall a memory of having to walk in front of the car with a torch to show the way as the Smog was so thick. Other cars also followed, but unfortunately on one occasion she went up someone’s private drive and all the cars had to reverse out!

After Mum passed her driving test in the mid 1950s she drove her Sunbeam Rapier all the way down to the south of France. How she did this I don’t know as in latter years she never drove more than 10 miles from her house. Her claim to fame was she never used a self service petrol pump always having to find a garage with an attendant. She stopped driving in 2014.

Coming back to Portsmouth aged 24, she married Owen Scarborough at St Colmans church and had 6 children over 8 years. Mark, Andrew, Shaun, Madeleine, James and David. One child, Andrew, sadly died at birth. Another of her children and my youngest brother, David, died of cancer in 2014, which Mum never got over.

Mum did some supply cover at a number of schools and then from 1965 onwards Mum taught at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School on and off for nearly 17 years. We all attended St Paul’s at the same time and the teaching element rubbed off on us, as three of her children, Madeleine, James and myself, all became teachers, and also taught at St. Paul’s.

We moved to the Crest, Widley in 1962 where Mum lived until she passed away.

Growing up, our house was always full of children, either children from nearby gardens or children who came to the summer school Mum ran. We even took 13 to Portchester Castle in her old Morris Minor. Later on, many students from Europe stayed in the house in the holidays and lodgers and they joined in the many bbqs and parties.

Whilst teaching at St Paul’s, Mum established the school swimming team, which became the best in the city. With the help of her energetic fundraising, the team were resplendent in their Stars and Stripes speedos and towelling robes. Mum would also take them for extra swimming training at local pools, packing her orange mini with children.

Mum spent a lot of time taking us to a whole range of activities. Swimming, football, cricket, tennis, athletics, pétanque, badminton, chess, ballet, knitting (for Shaun), fruit and vegetable shows, cubs, brownies, Scouts and piano lessons are just examples. To help motivate James in his archeological studies she even found time to do an A level in Archaeology. She also completed her Bachelor of Education degree and shortly after, her Masters in Education. How she found the time is remarkable but she often went with only 4 hours sleep a night!

With this incredible support and the endless opportunities, Madeleine went on to represent England and Great Britain in both the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games as well as setting two British records in 100m Butterfly and 4 by 100m Medley Relay Team.

Mum set up a pétanque club in the back garden known as Havant Crest Pétanque Club. The club went on to win the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Games as well as other competitions. Many people came and played at the club including Mum herself, Mick and Nora Gaffney and other friends and neighbours here today. She received Havant Borough Councils Outstanding Achievement Award for Senior Women in 1992. My brother David also represented Great Britain in Pétanque in the World Championships and other events.

After St Paul’s Mum taught at Waterside Special School, which was both mentally and physically demanding. Unfortunately whilst teaching there she had a significant back injury, which meant early retirement due to ill health.

Mum had always been involved in fundraising; from the age of 3 she helped raise funds for the Red Cross. Now retired she began to put her organisational skills to good use and increased the charity activities she was involved with. These included:

The Rocky Appeal for Portsmouth Hospitals which she received 24 plaques; Rowans Hospice, Naomi House, Alicia Parnell Fund, Pavell Appeal, Park Place, plus numerous animal charities.

St Colmans and St Paul’s also benefitted and the Stained Glass Window for Daleys School to my left is another of her legacies.

During the 2000’s and 2010’s her bungalow at Christmas time would be turned into a Christmas Grotto with friends and neighbours dressed as reindeers offering sleigh rides up the drive and with Father Christmas situated in his own grotto! Christmas lights and illuminations had to be put up mid November in preparation for the spectaculars.

There was always a Christmas sing a long for friends and neighbours with mince pies and mulled wine being shared as well as the off key singing!

Mum could not have done all her fundraising without the support of many friends especially Loraine. As well as the annual grotto, each year contained a huge array of fund raising opportunities including coffee mornings, jumble sales, auctions, car boots, garage sales, home sales, Easter Parties, Christmas sing a longs, garden parties, table top sales plus an assortment of other activities. Most Fridays and Saturdays were taken up attending and running sales in Paulsgrove, Copnor, and numerous church and community halls as well as her own house. She would come home on many days and find many more bags of jumble by her front door. When Mum finally gave up it took me nearly a year to sort through it and take it to local charity shops.

In 2003 she was recognised for her fundraising and was awarded The News We can do it Best Volunteer Award. She was Runner Up in the same category in 2007, but in 2009 she was awarded the News We can do it Award for Best Neighbour. She was regularly in the News promoting her fundraising or being interviewed about her life. In 2012 Woman’s Own did an article on her, which she was very proud of.

Her recognition of serving the community was acknowledged at a national level and she was invited to a Queen’s Garden Party. Shortly after she was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2014.

Mum had supported the Church and it’s community ever since she was young. She ran the Sunday School at St Colmans when she was 16, was a Eucharistic Minister, a regular reader and gave lifts to people who couldn’t get to church easily. She was also a member of the Friendship Club. As already mentioned she also helped with the organisation and delivery of fundraising activities within the church.

She also established Daley’s Old Girls, who regularly used to meet for meals, go on holidays to St Ives and Torquay and raised the funds for the stained glass window here at St Colmans. In 2014 the Diocese of Portsmouth awarded her the Diocesan Medal for Outstanding Fidelity and Service within the Diocese.

Mum would turn her hand to anything. With Nora and Carole from the Crest she did a bricklaying course at Highbury College much to the bemusement of the lecturer! Fortunately, she never put this into practice! She was also an Exam Invigilator at Highbury College for a number of years.

Mum loved children and would always be the first to look after many of her grandchildren as they were growing up. They also got to help or hinder her with the various fundraising that went on!

Mum enjoyed travelling as and when she could going to watch Madeleine at the Barcelona Olympics, visiting relations in Australia, Caribbean and European Cruises with the Gaffneys and various weeks away with Daleys Old Girls to St Ives and Torquay. Often, on these trips, Mum would be first up dancing as this was one of her great loves, ever since she was young, going round with her cousin Pam to local dance halls.

Unfortunately Mum was a victim of COVID. As far as we are aware she never had COVID but actually thought she wasn’t allowed out because she would give it to others. Mum couldn’t do her usual things and she stopped doing her coffee mornings and home jumble sales. She had already been acknowledged as having Dementia in 2019 and, with the lack of interaction this deteriorated quite rapidly. She didn’t like to leave the house and it became harder for us to entice her out.

There were still the sparks of the Old Julie with the exaggerated story telling and sing a longs even with her carers who saw her twice a day. She was a lifelong supporter of the Queen and one of her stories was that the Queen would ring her up regularly and invite her to stay at Buckingham Palace. Sorting through her paperwork I found a scrapbook of the Queen that she had made in 1952, which can be seen at the Wake.

3 months before she passed away she celebrated her 90th birthday with 100th birthday celebrations as she was convinced she was 100 and was so excited. A creative telegram from the King and a letter from the Prime Minister greeted her and she had a lovely sing a long with family, friends and neighbours. In her final week of life she was telling people she was 103!

I know many of her values, life skills and eccentricities including her determination, work ethic, enthusiasm as well as her loud voice have been passed down through her children and grandchildren. She gave us the best start in life and the opportunities to further ourselves. Thank you Mum.

Now rest in peace.

We will remember you!