Helen Mary Dexter (1880–1948)

The Literary Guide, December 1948

In our advertisement columns we include a notice of the death of Mrs. Helen Mary Dexter, of East Winch, King’s Lynn, the wife of Mr. Walter Dexter, R.B.A. It is of interest to note that the Lynn News and Advertiser made reference to Mrs. Dexter’s membership of the R.P.A., and the fact that she was no longer associated with any Church, in an obituary published in its columns. Mr. Dexter himself provided the details on which the paragraph was based, and he suggests that friends of deceased Rationalists asked to furnish particulars for the Press should make mention of their membership of the R.P.A.

From the Lynn Advertiser, 14 May 1948

Obituary

MRS. W. DEXTER

Thirty years of devoted married life have been severed for Mr. Walter Dexter. R.B.A.. East Winch—one of Norfolk’s most distinguished living artists—by the death of his wife, Mrs. Helen Mary Dexter, at Lynn Hospital on May 6. There are no children.

The funeral was at the Norwich Crematorium, Horsham St. Faith’s, on Monday, and the special form of service was conducted by the chaplain, the Rev. H. P. Jones (Vicar of Horsham St. Faith’s).

When Mr. Dexter first met his wife-to-be, as one of his sister’s friends in Lynn, she was helping her mother, Mrs. J. R. Chadwick, a district visitor of St. Nicholas’ chapel, in work in North End. Later she was active in the local Women’s Suffrage movement, acting as secretary, and shared with her husband what were then regarded as advanced social views.

Mrs. Dexter’s chief interest was in the welfare of children, however, and when in the first world war Mr. Dexter became Art master at the Bolton School, she helped in the children’s clinic at Bolton.

An accomplished violinist, she had been a member at one time of Mr. F. J. Bone’s Lynn orchestra. During late years an affliction of the hands had thrown her back on literature as almost her only personal pleasure.

For many years a member of the Rationalist Press Association, and no longer associated with any church, she had devoted herself to the service of others. Her simple code of life was, “Help ye one another”.