Former Aylesbury mayor Freda Roberts who served the town for 53 years passes away at 97

"Freda Doris Roberts aged 97 of Wellington, Somerset, formally of Aylesbury, sadly passed away on 25 Wednesday August 2021.

"She will be greatly missed by Tim and Sally and all the family. A much loved mum ,mum in law, nan and great nanny."

The above is how Freda's family want the long-serving Aylesbury politician to be remembered.

Freda served as Mayor of Aylesbury on three different occasions and chaired the district council during her long tenured politics career.

She first became a councillor way back in 1963, she served her community for 53 years, working in many different iterations of Aylesbury's council system.

While Freda is synonymous with Aylesbury, she finished her life in Wellington, wanting to move closer to her daughter.

She will be fondly remembered for her work within the ward of Southcourt ,where she run Freda's Fun Nights, for many years and played pivotal roles in housing projects.

Her son Tim says: "Politics was her life. She was a doer, not a sayer. She wasn't one for sitting down. She was someone who got things done, cut red tape, and made things happen promptly.

"Because of this she was well-liked, but she also ruffled some feathers."

Freda was made an honorary Freewoman of the Town of Aylesbury in 2019. She earned the honour for the sheer variety of ways she assisted people in Aylesbury.

As well as serving as mayor three times, she was a school governor and made an Alderman within the town.

A spokesperson for the Aylesbury Town Council described Freda as a 'stalwart of the local community'.

She was involved with charities and tried to assist disabled members of the Aylesbury community through her work with learning difficulty charity, Mencap.

Love brought Freda to Aylesbury, before getting the political bug, she worked as a staff nurse in Yorkshire.

During the Second World War she was stationed with Rupert, who went onto become her husband.

She moved to Aylesbury, with Rupert, who had grown up in the town, and the 'rest was history', her family says.

She was honoured by the Queen becoming a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for her work serving the people of Aylesbury.

An old Aylesbury Remembered post shows just how beloved Freda was within the community.

Unprompted, people from Aylesbury refer to her as: 'truly wonderful, sweet tempered' and someone 'not one person has a bad word to say about'.

Anecdotes referencing her time as a councillor, governor and mayor, cover everything from supporting people who were scared, injured, in someone need of damp removing from her house.

All the stories have one thing in common, they reference a caring, giving individual, who made the most of her official posts.

She passed away at Taunton Hospital on Wednesday.

Freda is survived by her two children, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.