Elspeth Holderness Elspeth Macdiarmid (she was more commonly known as Elpie) was born in Glasgow in 1923, scion of a Scottish family who encouraged her love for music and the arts.
When she was 16 she met her brother Nialls Oxford University student friend, Hardwicke Holderness, who was 24. During the Second World War Hardwicke flew with the RAF (he went on to become Rhodesias most decorated pilot). She worked for the Ministry of Information in London.
The young couple married in Salisbury, at the Anglican Cathedral, in 1948. They were rarely apart during their long and happy marriage.
At the start of the famous Eighth Parliament of Rhodesia (1953-1958), Hardwicke Holderness MP was a key supporter of Prime Minister Garfield Todd.
At a time when few black children attended primary schools, Elspeth and some of her friends supported Hardwickes and Garfields work in Parliament in a most practical way – by opening backyard schools for the children of their domestic workers.
As fast as they were opened, they were closed down by irate white Rhodesian officials and school inspectors.
In 1975, the Holderness family moved to England and lived first outside Oxford and then at Cheltenham where few of their neighbours knew anything at all about their extraordinary exploits, adventures and achievements in colonial Africa.
Hardwicke died in March 2007 at the age of 92 and Elspeth was pleased and proud when she saw how many famous newspapers honoured her heroic husband in their obituary columns. She modestly dismissed her own achievements on the human rights front, though her family and friends who knew her best did not.
She was a rare and most gracious lady, said a contemporary who knew and loved Elspeth Holderness.
(Elspeth Holderness is survived by her two daughters Dinah and Grizelda and their families. They remember their mother and their grandmother with pride, thanks and love).
Post published in: Opinions