A FORMER Colchester mayoress who became one of the first North Essex women to be ordained as an Anglican priest has died.

The Rev Lindsay Spendlove had been receiving palliative care at St Elizabeth Hospice, Ipswich, Suffolk, for a recurrent and aggressive form of cancer.

Her husband, Paul, who was mayor in 1991/92, said Mrs Spendlove had lived with 16 months of illness, including surgery, chemo and radiotherapy.

He added: “Her death means she will not have to suffer the dreadful consequences of the advanced stages of this wicked cancer.

“She beat it and retained her dignity and soul, fully intact.”

Mrs Spendlove, who was 59, studied law at the University of Manchester but spent more time working at the city’s newly-opened Royal Exchange Theatre.

AGilbert and Sullivan enthusiast since her teens, her first job after graduating was as an office junior with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, often running errands for Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte, who lived in a suite of rooms at the Savoy Hotel.

Mrs Spendlove moved into theatre arts administration and came to the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, to work for manager David Forder.

It was in Colchester she met her future husband, Paul, who was the chairman of directors at the theatre. They were married in 1982.

Mrs Spendlove went on to study for a degree in history from the University of Essex.

She also undertook the East Anglian ministerial training course, which led to her ordination as a deacon in the Anglican church in 1992. She was ordained priest in 1994, one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood in the Chelmsford Diocese.

Mrs Spendlove served in the Colchester parishes of Lexden, St Mary’s and New Town, before joining the Diocesan House of Retreat at Pleshey as its associate priest.

It was here she forged links with the Evelyn Underhill Association in Washington DC, USA.

In 2004, with the help of her friend and colleague Eilish Heath, she established Green Blade, a place where people could go on retreat, using a former pub in Wenhaston, Suffolk.

She combined this with a chaplaincy on the Suffolk Sandlings.

A service of thanksgiving and farewell will be held at the Church of All Saints’, Sudbourne, Suffolk, on November 28.

Donations are requested for the St Elizabeth Hospice and can be sent to Hunnaball of Ipswich, Dove House, 291 Norwich Road, Ipswich, IP1 4BP.