The power behind the Old Plymouth Society

CHRIS ROBINSON FONDLY RECALLS DOREEN MOLE, A COMPLETE 'TOUR DE FORCE'

- CHRIS ROBINSON

It was with great sadness that I learned earlier this month of the passing of Doreen Mole, a stalwart and a powerhouse of the Old Plymouth Society.

Doreen Stead was born on 12 January 1930 and was the eldest of three children. A keen student at school, she had entertained ideas about going to art college but when she was 14, her father got her a job working as a hairdressing apprentice. Two years later, however, she contracted tuberculosis and was forced to spend 18 months in Didworthy Sanitorium.

Not long after being able to leave that place, she met Stan Mole, four years her senior and then serving in the Royal Navy. They were married in 1948 in the Plymouth Registry Office and their first child was born the following year.

When she and Stan were first married, they lived with her family in Laira for a time, before moving on to a flat in Ernesettle and then a prefab in Honicknowle. Once the children had grown up, Doreen's working life included serving behind the bar of the Golden Hind and a variety of roles with Marks and Spencer, including a stint as a sales assistant in the menswear department.