The life of long term resident of Walpole Avenue and leader of the Chipstead community

Born in 1985 Vivien was the eldest of three children of Thomas and Carloine Rhy Davids. The family lived in How Lane Chipstead before, in 1917, they moved to Middleshaws, Walpole Avenue. She had a younger brother, Arthur, who was to become a decorated WW1 pilot and sister Nesta.

Vivien was schooled at Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls and won a scholarship to St Hugh’s College, Oxford in 1915, no mean feat for a girl in those days.  According to the St Margaret’s Parish Magazine Vivien’s fiancé was killed in the First World War. We do not know who he was. The engagement must have occurred after Arthur’s death as there is no mention of either a courtship or an engagement in any of the letters between Arthur and his elder sister.

In 1918 Vivien joined the WRAF being finally accepted on Armistice Day, (she had been trying to join since the loss of Arthur) she initially served in France and later, in Cologne with the Army of occupation. Following the death of her father aged 80 in 1922, Vivien moved back to Middleshaws to live with her mother. She was joined there by her companion of many years, Doris (Jonnie) Bland who was an old school friend and had been her father’s secretary. Vivien was fortunate enough to be wealthy (in part through receiving a substantial legacy in 1934 from her uncle Charles Foley) and like her mother was a vocal campaigner for children’s rights and women’s suffrage and equality. Vivien took particular interest in the advancement of girls and before World War II was involved with the Girl Guide movement. A chance encounter with a former service friend led to a job at the Girl Guides headquarters in London, commuting from Chipstead (no working from home in those days!!). Vivian regarded this as the most significant influence on her life.

Vivien Rhys Davids

From 1920 for a quarter of a century she held various appointments in the Girl Guide movement, becoming a member of its executive council and in 1932, she became Great Brown Owl for England & Wales, the head of the Brownie movement. She wrote “Brown Magic” a highly regarded handbook for the world’s Brown Owls and toured the United States. In 1920 she started the Brownies in Chipstead while her sister, Nesta with a Miss Kathleen Fox started the Guides.

In 1923 Johnnie Bland was asked if she would organise some carol singing for Chipstead, and the Chipstead Carol Party was born. In association with Vivien, Jonnie led the carol party nearly every year until the late 1960s. This group was the forerunner to what is today the Chipstead Singers.

By now it was obvious that Vivien could have been a considerable figure on the national scene but for family reasons she chose to devote her life to public service in Chipstead and Surrey. She was a founder member of the Chipstead Players in 1924 (when Vivien, Jonnie and a group of their friends got together on a regular basis to read plays) and only relinquished the Presidency towards the end of her life. Vivien took plays around Europe.

In 1939 she was elected to serve on Banstead Council, this started 35 years of local and County Council membership. She served as a Surrey County Councillor becoming Chairman of the County’s Southeast Planning Committee. Vivian was also twice appointed Chair of Banstead Council (the first Lady so to do) and was awarded an MBE by the late Queen Elizabeth in 1973

She took a great interest in village life and was active in preserving it against encroaching urbanisation and, by her example and vigour, making it a happy and close-knit community. In 1977 Vivien had rallied support for the purchase of Neale’s Field and set great store by the Chipstead Village Preservation Society, whose original patron she consented to be. She was a governor of The Mary Stephens Foundation (which was set up in 1746 for teaching poor children of the parish, it used to run a school but by Vivien’s time it was a charity issuing educational support grants) and in 1946 she founded and became Chairman of the Chipstead Community Association, in a successful attempt to resuscitate social and communal life in Chipstead after the second world war.

Vivien moved from Middleshaws following the death of her mother in 1942, but continued to reside in Walpole Avenue, living in Garth Steading still with her old school friend “Jonnie” Bland.

The two women were devoted to one another and in later life decided to build a smaller house in the garden of Garth Steading. In 1968 when they were about to move in Jonnie died and Vivien was left to move into Under Garth alone. Christina Holmes whose family purchased Garth Steading from Vivien says that she was told that the guest room at Garth Steading was haunted by Vivien’s old nanny/nurse but Vivien told Christina not to worry because ‘Nursie’ would be happy when Christina had children of her own that she could watch over.

Christina also says that Vivien was born with one leg longer than the other and required a raised shoe to enable her to walk normally, despite this she was an inveterate traveller until infirmity in later life took its toll. She drove her own car and carried with her a table tennis bat with “Help” emblazoned on it, in case of any emergency.  

Vivien lived in Under Garth until she died on December 7^th 1978 at the age of 83. This was just six days after she had, according to the St Margaret’s Parish Magazine, fascinated a record audience at the Peter Aubertin Hall with her story of Chipstead in the past 100 years.

Fortunately, this talk was recorded and exists today in a digital format in the CVPS archives. She concluded her talk by saying “One thing is certain. If we get slack and forget to fight for the things we have won with so many battles the village will become just another suburb of Croydon or London. Our greatest treasure is our village life together, and long may we keep it as a place full of beauty, friendliness and kindness”.

Ian Baker