News / St Pauls
Tributes paid to much-loved St Paul’s community elder
Lurleen Wynter, who has died at the age of 105, was known to people in St Paul’s as Mother Wynter.
She arrived in the UK on the Windrush in 1950, leaving her children with relatives in Jamaica until she was able to afford for them to travel to join her in Bristol.
Lurleen helped other families as they arrived in England from Jamaica by offering lodgings until they could find a home themselves.
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She devoted her life to the church and was a central pillar in the congregation of City Road Baptist Church and the wider St Paul’s community, also helping to found what later became St Paul’s Carnival.
Her selfless service to the community and to charities – which included raising money to buy cows for families in Africa so they could become self-sufficient, and for sickle cell anaemia research – meant that she met members of the Royal Family on numerous occasions, and she was presented with Maundy Money by the Queen in 1999.
A touching moment between Lurleen (wearing a hat) and Prince Charles – photo: Wynter family
“The number of times I arrived there as a child to find people sat at her table eating soup who I had never met in my life!” said her grandson, Nicholas Feurtado, recounting how often Lurleen took in people to her house to feed and care for them.
Nicholas added: “During my 20s I can remember seeing chaps who worked on doors as bouncers, who scared the life out of most, suddenly turn into little boys and gush when they met her as she had looked after many of them when they were children.
“My great aunt Patsy even told me that grandma wrote to Jonathan Aitken, the disgraced Tory MP after he was sent to prison. By all accounts she sent a £5 note so he could, ‘buy something in the prison shop’, and asked him to take the time to reflect and that she would be praying for him.”
Lurleen devoted much of her life to raising money for charities – photo: Wynter family
Another of Lurleen’s loves was amateur dramatics, and from the 1960s to the 1990s she organised several plays, sketches, recitals, poetry performances and Easter presentations.
In the late 90s, she auditioned and only narrowly missed out on securing a role in a Lilt advert, which required “a charming Caribbean lady of senior years who exudes warmth, charm, wit, fun and welcoming friendliness” – Lurleen personified.
Her influence within the St Paul’s community was exemplified when artist Michelle Curtis painted her portrait as part of her Iconic Black Bristolians project.
Lurleen’s funeral will take place on April 29 at City Road Baptist Church, followed by Filton Cemetery and Rose Green Cricket Ground.
Illustration by Michele Curtis
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