Memorial to two-time Lord Mayor

The funeral of Bulwell’s Ivy Matthews, a long-serving councillor who was Nottingham’s Lord Mayor twice, has taken place.
Ivy MatthewsIvy Matthews
Ivy Matthews

She died on December 7, aged 99, and a memorial service was held at St Mary’s Church, Bulwell.

Ivy was born on September 20, 1916, and her family lived on Glapton Road in Nottingham. They moved to Bulwell Hall Estate when Ivy was 13 and she started work at Browns chocolate factory a year later.

Her political career began when she stood unsuccessfully as a council candidate for Nottingham’s Bridge Ward in the late 1950s and she was eventually elected to represent St Albans Ward in 1962. She served as Lord Mayor in 1975-6 and 1984-5.

Father Andy Nicolls, who conducted the memorial, said: “As we all know, Ivy could be feisty and determined as well as being humorous, faithful, loyal and devoted.”

Ivy also served as a magistrate up to the age of 70. Even in her 90s, she still led guided tours of Nottingham Council House, ran the Bulwell No 3 Old Age Pensioners Association and organised holidays for elderly people. Ivy’s husband, Frank, died in 1971. Ivy was the mother of Derek and Trevor, a grandmother and great-grandmother.

Coun Jackie Morris, the present Lord Mayor, said: “If something needed doing, Ivy was the person to go and see.”