Hayes Free Church, Bromley was packed with guiding friends for the Service of Thanksgiving for Pat Tiley on 24th October. People had travelled from far and wide to celebrate Patâs life, held in such high esteem by so many the congregation included the Chief Guide Gill Slocombe and two of her predecessors as well as three former region chief commissioners.
A Guiding Tribute to Pat Tiley MBE
read at her Service of Thanksgiving Thursday 24th October 2013
The comment that we are hearing time and time again from people is that Pat has been inspirational in the guiding lives of so many of us and that her knowledge, experience and inspiration have led many of us to where we are today.
Brownies were always Patâs chief passion in guiding and the huge number of other roles that she undertook were always seen in the light of improving the quality of guiding for everyone, from the youngest Rainbow to the most senior of adults.
Patâs roles ranged from Brownie Leader for over 40 years to the shorter-term positions such as Chair of Guiding Development for Girlguiding UK. In 1992, whilst Pat was Brownie adviser for the region, she launched the Brownie Go Challenge at Central Hall, Westminster. Hundreds of children took part in activities to delight and excite them. It is thanks to Pat that we have the current Brownie resources. How many thousands of Brownies and their leaders will ever forget their adventure at Butlins with Suzie Centipede? Behind the scenes, Pat was working flat out to make it the biggest and best adventure the Brownies had ever experienced. Nothing phased her, not even the sight of well over a thousand children sitting in Skyline waiting rather longer than she would have liked to get into the performance.
Pat was a superb commissioner at district, division and county levels. A GLK division commissioner always considered Pat a Guiding God, and she told Pat at a county PGL weekend, early last year, that she always felt that Pat was so important that she stood up when she was reading Pat's emails. Apparently Pat nearly fell off her chair laughing, she said it was the daftest and funniest thing that she had heard in a while and wasnât something that sheâd forget. At a later date, when an email exchange was taking place, Pat added a p.s. âI hope youâre still standing up?â!
Many have benefited from Patâs leadership. She was so generous with her time and enjoyed mentoring because she wanted to encourage others to gain as much from guiding as she had done.
Her skill in the use of modern technology was well employed helping others throughout local and national guiding, for example when implementing GO. We often teased Pat when looking at her latest electronic gadget but in truth we envied her talent.
Pat became a trainer in 1969 and there are many amusing tales of her exploits in the training field. There will be people here who recall Pat at Foxlease entering a training session attired in the clothes of an artist, palette and brush in hand. âHello, Iâm Pat Picasso!â Those of you who knew Pat well will appreciate why the co-trainer collapsed in a heap of laughter because there was one skill that escaped Pat, ART! On another occasion Pat dealt summarily with two trainers at Waddow who were burning the midnight oil, trying to redesign their next dayâs sessions. They were making little progress when Pat entered the room and asked why they were still working. âHave you written the aims and objectives?â Two red-faced trainers just looked at Pat. âI suggest that you do! Goodnightâ. Within a very short time, they too were off to bed. Yet again Pat had dispensed good advice!
As a tutor, internal verifier and moderator, Pat has steered the region through many versions of the Trainer Qualification. There are so many who have benefited from her expertise in training. Fellow trainers tell of the fun they have had whilst abroad training with Pat. Typically, one of the last conversations Pat had with a fellow trainer, whilst she was in the Royal Marsden, was checking that all the people whom she was currently tutoring would be supported. How caring she was.
At national meetings, Pat represented the region with sound common sense. It is fair to say that she did not tolerate lack of logic and let people know when she disagreed with them. This gained great respect for her views. People listened to Pat.
It was from Pat that I learned to appreciate that we âgiveâ our time to guiding, we donât âgive upâ our time â weâre not depriving ourselves of something and in fact, if we were then weâd soon âgive it upâ.
Yes, Pat gave! She shared her skills and was a lifelong learner. Pat was a founder member of the Greater London Kent Ringers who are playing for us today. Pat learnt to read music at the age of 60. She was very proud of this accomplishment and she thoroughly enjoyed the fun which emanated from the teamwork.
We were all so proud when Pat was awarded the MBE for services to guiding. The news was published in the national papers on the day of the region Annual Review in Rochester and we were all delighted to be able to make the announcement that day. The applause from those gathered was loud and long that day as we all wanted to pay tribute to Pat. Today we are all here to pay tribute to Pat once more. Each person here will have very special memories of Pat. We all recall her in different settings, in various roles and at different events but one aspect we all share: Pat was our inspirational friend and we will remember her with great affection.
Many of you will know Patâs guiding tipples of choice â red wine (so you donât have to worry about chilling the stuff) and black coffee (so youâre not bothered about dodgy milk). Please join me in raising a metaphorical glass of red to Pat â
CHEERS Pat, it was a privilege to know you.
Pip McKerrow, Chief Commissioner, Girlguiding London and South East England