Recalling Weymouth mayor Iseult Legh as museum buys medal

Iseult Legh was a former mayor of Weymouth who was widowed at 47 and dedicated her life to the welfare of women and children in the area.

Her name lives on today with a care home named after her and a very special purchase for Weymouth Museum.

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The Friends of Weymouth Museum have bought a Past Mayor’s medal presented to Alderman Iseult Andree Legh at the conclusion of her year as Mayor of the Borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in 1959.

The medal was up for sale in Cornwall.

Iseult Andree Murray was born in Paris on 7 February 1897, the daughter of an English father and French mother. In 1915 she married a young Royal Naval officer, John Allan Pennington Legh at St. John’s Church, Hampstead, and a son was born the following year.

John Legh had been born on 10 March 1889 in Surrey and during the First World War he had been awarded the D.S.C. In 1920, like many naval officers, he had been victim of the defence cuts in the post war period. He was awarded a Board of Trade Master’s Certificate in 1922 and the following year was appointed as Inspector, Gourock District. H.M. Coastguard and then at Hoylake. In 1929 he was promoted to Commander (retired).

John and Iseult moved to Radipole Old Manor in Weymouth in 1940 on his appointment as Inspector of the Southern Division of H.M. Coastguard. Iseult threw herself into voluntary work in the town, becoming a member of the W.V.S. and starting a savings scheme, and took a keen interest in St Ann’s Church at Radipole.

Her interest in the welfare of others led to the introduction of Home Help services and a chiropody service.

The wartime salvage drive led to her initiating separate collections of salvage, and to find out the best method of getting results, she travelled around the borough on a dustcart!

On 13 October 1944 John Pennington Legh met his death during an heroic rescue on Chesil Beach while attempting to rescue the crew of landing craft LCT(A) which had got into difficulties on a stormy night. He was one of two coastguards who, along with nine crew members, lost their lives. Both coastguards were awarded a Sea Gallantry Medal for their efforts.

Mayor Iseult Legh at the Weymouth and South Dorset Arts Centre in 1959. Picture: Courtesy of Weymouth Museum

Widowed at 47, Iseult Legh continued her work for the local community with increased vigour. She was elected a member of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Borough Council in 1946, being elected an Alderman in 1956, and in 1950 was elected a member of Dorset County Council.

She took a particular interest in the welfare of women and of children in the care of the County Council.

She instituted a most successful “Uncles and Aunts “ scheme where people wrote to children in the care of the County Council at Christmas and on their birthdays, and even today some of those children write appreciatively of the interest which she took in their welfare. Another of her interests was the welfare of elderly people.

In 1958 she was elected Mayor of the Borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. In her year of office she was instrumental in initiating the twinning of Weymouth and Louviers. The charter was signed in Louviers in 1958 and reaffirmed at a meeting of the Borough Council on 4 April 1959.

Also in her Mayoral year she called a public meeting which led to the formation of the Weymouth Council of Social Service and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and the Cruse Club for the bereaved.

One major highlight of her Mayoral Year was the visit to Weymouth by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles on 29 April 1959.

Her service to the community was marked when she was awarded the O.B.E. in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 1961.

Iseult Legh continued her work for the community for the next fifteen years but at the reorganisation of local government in 1974 she did not stand for election to the new authorities. She continued her work as a conscientious Chair of Governors at Radipole Primary School for some years despite failing health.

Iseult Legh died on 1 May 1979, aged 82. Many tributes were paid to her public service and her memory is perpetuated in the naming by Abbeyfield of Legh House home for the elderly in Rylands Lane.

Weymouth Museum, when it reopens this coming Thursday, May 20, will display the medal and have further details of her life.