There can be no disguising the sense of shock and grief with which we learned of the death of "dear
old Bar", to use the affectionate phrase which always seemed to come instinctively to the tongue
when referring to her. She went to Bentley early in December for two months sick leave, developed
pleurisy and then pneumonia, to which she succumbed, passing peacefully on the 23rd January. One
of the last things she did before she was taken ill, was to type the scripts for "The Western Chamber",
in the decision to revive which she was largely influential.
Barbara was one of the very few remaining original members of the Club, having been with us since
the Questors was first founded in 1929. She was the only member apart from the writer, who has been
continuously active in the Club from its formation until now. She had been a member of the general
Committee since 1931 until the end of 1943, when her resignation from the General Secretaryship,
which office she had held since 1941, involved her vacating her seat on the Committee under the new
Rules.
With her independent mind, her influence in shaping the course of the Club has been great, probably
greater than she herself realised, particularly in the choice of play, in which she assisted as a member
of the Plays -Committee for many years.
There are few jobs that she did not undertake at one time or another for the Club, and many of them
the routine, unglamorous jobs that too often go unrecognised, but are in the end the mainstay of the
Club. She played many parts of which the outstanding one was, perhaps, "Georgiana Tidman" in
"Dandy Dick". No one would wish to pretend that she was a brilliant actress, but as has been
emphasised before, it is steady continuous work rather than an occasional brilliant performance, which
has always been the most valuable contribution to the Club.
But it is rather for what she was, than what she did, that Barbara will live in the memories of us all: for
her frank, open-heartedness and generous spirit endeared her to all who knew her, and the
affectionate regard in which we all hold her will not be easily dimmed.
Alfred Emmet
BARBARA SHARP AT THE QUESTORS
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