By Harold Franklin
EB July 1985
Anne Staveley, who died on the 10th of April, was elected as Vice-President of the English Bridge Union in October 1981, a month after she and her husband Stuart had retired to the home they had longed for, in Shieldaig in the Highlands.
Her working association with the EBU began in 1968 when she was appointed Master Points Secretary, a position in which she soon established order and kept up with a rapidly growing membership. Four years later she assumed the added responsibility of Membership Secretary and four years after that she became Assistant Secretary of the EBU.
A recital of her offices, while offering some indication of her capabilities, gives no real picture of her efforts. Anne found her satisfaction and her reward in her work, and especially in her work for bridge.
In 1975 and 1981 I was charged with the organisation of three International Championships on behalf of the EBU all of which were judged to be a success, both technically and financially. No person was more responsible for the success of all three than Anne. There was no hour of the day or night when I could not phone her with some suggestion, without ever, apparently, causing irritation and without ever not having the suggestion pursued the following day. Her files of 1975 would still serve as a blue-print for a Championship today.
She liked work and she liked people and she enjoyed the friendship and loyalty of those with whom she worked no less than those for whom she worked. Her activities stretched beyond the EBU. She worked in various capacities at several European and World Championships outside Britain. Whenever she did, the executive Committee invariably found her an extra job as their Secretary and she is still fondly remembered at the Senior levels of the World Bridge Federation - as she is by the International Bridge Press Association who appointed her Membership Secretary in 1981 and with whose members she soon established an easy rapport. It was in character that in her last days, while in considerable pain, she insisted on instructing her husband in her duties with the IBPA.
She is survived by her loving husband Stuart, by her mother Mrs Annie Jones, by her son and daughter-inlaw, Peter and Ruth and by her grandchildren Laura and Christopher. Our deepest sympathy is extended to all of them.