"Fairy godmother thought of friends"

From Essex County Standard November 1950

Miss Margaret Harrison of West Mersea, fairy godmother (often anonymously) to countless people and charities all over the country, did not forget before she died in July 1950 to express her gratitude to friends and employees at Mersea and Copford.

In her £125,000 will, published this week, she made a bequest of £1,000, securities and money in P.O. Savings Bank, an annuity of £250 and Mountview, Alexandra Avenue, Wests Mersea (or any other home they may be sharing) to her "dear friend" Cecily A. Hetherington, S.R.N.; an annuity of £52 and the use for life of the cottage at the Grove, Copford, to her old friend and former servant, William Candler, and £100 each and the use of Gardener's House at West Mersea Hall to William Clarry and his wife, Florence Clarry.

West Mersea Hall - posted Aug 1941 from Nancy to Mrs Clarry, The Grove, Copford

West Mersea Hall, which she bought in 1923 and maintained as a home of rest for poor ladies, she bequeathed to the trustees of St Peter's Home and Sisterhood, Woking, with the wish that it be maintained as a home for rest. In trust she left £10,000 for the upkeep of the Hall.

After other bequests she left the residue of her property to the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance.

Gifts in Shrubs
Miss Harrison was living at Copford when she bought West Mersea Hall in 1923, and before the war children from Copford Church Sunday School visited the Hall at her invitation. Parties of men and women from the former Braintree and Stanway Institutions were also her guests at the Hall, and she gained great pleasure in watching her visitors hunt for gifts which she had hidden in the shrubs of the five-acre garden.

The Hall which is mentioned in records as being established for centuries was requisitioned during the war and used by the Land Army. Most of the furniture was given by Miss Harrison to Chelmsford Hospital.
Now the Hall has been requisitioned by the local Council and converted into three flats.

During the war Miss Harrison moved to Fleet in Hampshire. For the past three years she has been spending the winter months at Fleet and the summer at Mersea, where she bought Green Chairs, Alexandra Avenue.

Anonymous Help
Mr William Clarry, who has worked for 45 years at West Mersea Hall, sat in the six-roomed house of which Miss Harrison had granted him the use for life, and told a "Standard" reporter of the many charities supported by his late employer.

"She did a tremendous lot for charity," he said, "a lot of it anonymously. Every Sunday night when they made an appeal on the wireless she used to sit with her cheque book open. She never found fault with anybody, and to her nobody was ever wrong.

"She helped a lot of people locally, too, although not many people knew about it. She was a very nice lady - one of the best I ever worked for."

Gifts for Servants
Among other bequests made by Miss Harrison were one week's wages, with a maximum of £25, for each complete year of service to each other servant in her employ at her death; £100 each to her old friends and former servants Margaret Harries and Maria L. French; £1,000 each to Winstree Diocesan Board of Finance, the Church Army Community of St Peter's Milburn, and the S.P.G.; £500 to the P.D.S.A.; £100 to the C.M.S.; £4,000 to her cousin Piera E. Kelsall; £100 each to two executors. Bequests of effects and other legacies totalled £3,150