Funeral for selfless Blackpool magistrate and community champion Brenda

Brenda Parker died on May 15 at the age of 82 following a battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Born in Doncaster in 1936, her family moved to Blackpool when she was nine years old.

Leaving school at 15 without any formal qualifications, Brenda started working as a office junior with Bernard Hope & Company in Birley Street, where she met husband Barrie

The pair married in 1956, with children Stephanie and John following shortly after.

In 1973 she accepted an offer to become a local magistrate and she became Brenda Parker, Justice of the Peace, a position she held for 32 years.

John said: “It was something she rarely spoke about but she was enormously proud of her job.”

Brenda was was a director of Child Poverty Action Group and the Blackpool Law Centre and also an active member of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and helped to raise funds to support the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. She was a founder member of the Blackpool Women’s Refuge as well.

John said: “She wanted to help vulnerable and needy people and was prepared to campaign on their behalf. She went about this in her usual way demanding no recognition or self promotion. She never lost her spirit and fortitude or her capacity to love.”

As well as Barrie, Stephanie and John she leaves behind grandchildren Hazel, Lloyd, Ellis and Wesley and great grandchildren Shannan, Brenna and Lottie Mae.