TRIBUTES have been paid to a well known founder of choirs and musical events in South Derbyshire who has died.
Winifred Bonas passed away on August 25 at the age of 92, and her family have led the tributes to a ‘notable local character and a much loved wife and mother’.
Winifred was born in 1918 in Castle Gresley and in 1941, she married Harry George Bonas, whose family owned textile mills in Castle Gresley and Burton.
They had three sons, Ian, Jeffrey and Michael — Winifred was also a grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of seven — and lived at Stanton Manor until 1959, and then at Grangewood Hall, Netherseal, until Harry died in 1983.
Subsequently, Winifred moved to the Old Rectory in Netherseal and ended her years being looked after at Saffron House, Hinckley.
She was a well known founder and conductor of choirs and musical events in South Derbyshire during the 1960s and 1970s.
Her first choir was the Stanton Ladies Choir which grew out of Winifred’s work with the Stanton Women’s Institute in the 1950s.
Having no formal musical training herself, she went to Leicester to train with George Gray, then the organist at Leicester Cathedral.
The choir went on to win several trophies at competitive music festivals in the Midlands.
The South Derbyshire Girls Choir followed, which also developed a winning tradition.
Winifred was also a feisty supporter of local causes and in the 1950s, she led a protest march of Stanton residents to the House of Commons, to object to a third round of opencast coal mining in the village.
She went on to support the founding of the Stanton Village Hall and after moving to Grangewood, in Netherseal, she was for many years churchwarden at St Peter’s Church, Netherseal.
Family member Deirdre Wilkin said: “She had a sharp mind and a wonderful sense of humour. I loved the way she loved people and they loved her; I loved her sense of style and her beauty; I loved the person underneath for her warmth, kindness and humanity.
“I am so grateful to have had her in my life, bless her dear, dear heart.” Her funeral will be held at 2.30pm on September 11 at St Peter’s Church.
