Pearl Roberts obituary
My mother, Pearl Roberts, who has died aged 100, was an early volunteer with the Paralympic Games and a campaigner against nuclear testing; she was also a keen amateur performer with a fine singing voice.
The pinnacle of her life on stage was playing the leading role of Anna in the King and I with Wells Operatic Society, Somerset, in 1976. It was no small performance, filling the Regal cinema for five nights. “Her personality is infectious and her singing is the highlight of the show,” said one review.
Born in Norwood, south London, Pearl was one of three children of Ada (nee Laver), a nanny, and Ted Langdon, a railway worker. The family moved with his work to Templecombe and then Yeovil, Somerset.
Leaving school aged 14 to work in an office, Pearl was 16 when the second world war broke out and had already met her future husband, Trevor Roberts. They had four years apart, as Trevor joined the RAF and Pearl volunteered for the nursing auxiliary service. She also joined a group of singers entertaining troops in the local army camps.
Pearl and Trevor married in 1944, and when the war finished he trained in dairy technology. The couple moved from Yeovil to Carmarthen in south Wales to improve his job opportunities in the dairy industry.
Like many others, Pearl was horrified at the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japan at the end of the war and the development of the nuclear arms race. In 1955 she gathered signatures for a petition against nuclear testing and her MP, Megan Lloyd George, presented it to parliament. Pearl joined CND, sold Peace News at weekends and took part in the Aldermaston marches.
The family moved to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1957, where Pearl worked as a nurse at Stoke Mandeville hospital. During that time the family volunteered with what became the Paralympic Games, which had emerged from Stoke Mandeville.
In 1964 they moved back to Somerset, living in Wells. When Trevor was made redundant in 1976, aged 55, he and Pearl moved near Poole, in Dorset, to be near the sea. There, Trevor retrained as a driving instructor and together they set up a driving school.
During this time Pearl volunteered with many organisations, from the Samaritans to Citizens Advice and the Dorset Disabled Society. She also enjoyed tending her vegetable garden, playing chess and singing in choirs. Their large home and garden became the centre of many family gatherings.
Trevor died in 2008. Aged 93, Pearl moved to live with me in Bristol, where she continued to sing in choirs, then into a nearby care home aged 95, where music and singing was a central activity for residents.
She is survived by four children, Ann, John, Heather and me, nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
