From: 156 Autumn 2022
Author: Chris Butterfield
Representing the Freemen of Oxford is usually most enjoyable. Over the years I have attended meetings of the Freemen of England and Wales, the annual Sheriff’s round up on Port Meadow, his mid-summer inspection, the Maundy Service at the Cathedral; all have left me with happy memories. But it was not so on Thursday 8th September.
That date will go down in the history books as the date the late Queen died. But it also saw the funeral of our Secretary Stephen Ewens. I travelled to Haughton near Stafford to join many others to bid a sad and untimely farewell.
I came to know Stephen when he joined my firm as a solicitor. After qualification he had taken a position with a firm based in Andover, and at the funeral I was pleased to meet with one of his clients from those days, who had become a family friend, and whom I happened to have met professionally in the past. It is now over 30 years since he moved to Oxford to join my firm, bringing with him his further qualification as a notary public. He settled to the south of Oxford, becoming a member of the Radley church choir.
More significantly for us, he became my apprentice, qualifying as a Freeman by servitude. This was a matter of great pride to him – I well recall his admission ceremony – and it is gratifying that his daughter Elizabeth has now become a Freeman by patrimony. When I moved out of Oxfordshire and retired from legal practice, Stephen took over from me as our Secretary.
In recent years he had not been able to attend all of our meetings. The family moved to Staffordshire, as his wife Ann had been appointed Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at Staffordshire University. So Stephen worked a four-day week in Oxford, returning home on Thursday evening, which has been the traditional time for our meetings. If he was absent I would take the minutes for him, but then pass them on for circulation, and it was always Stephen who arranged the room bookings for our meetings at the Town Hall.
However, before our June meeting this year he contacted me to say that he would be unable to attend as he felt unwell. He had earlier contracted coronavirus and was told he suffered from long covid. But that was not the case. His feeling unwell was due to the progress of a cancer that, when it was eventually recognized, had progressed too far. As was remarked by another of the solicitors from my firm while we waited to go into the church, we should not have been there: 61 is a tragically early age to be taken from one’s family and friends. As Freemen we extend our heartfelt sympathy to Ann and the rest of Stephen’s family.
Chairman’s note: Stephen’s passing has left us in need of a new Secretary. If any reader would be interested in filling that post, please contact the Chairman or Vice Chairman whose details are printed in the cover of this journal. The duties are far from onerous, although attendance at meetings means the post holder must live within travelling distance of the city.