RIP Twinning’s ‘little mascot’

MANY people from the Thame area who have ever visited its twin town in France, were sad to learn this week of the death of a wonderful old lady, described as ‘a little mascot’ pairing the two towns of Thame and Montesson.

The late Alice Williams, in 2010, aged 98 years.

Less than five feet tall,  and often to be seen bustling about the town on little bowed legs, Alice Williams, 102 years-old when she passed away last week, was an unforgettable character to everyone who met her. She had married an Englishman, a soldier she met as a shop girl, while serving tea to British soldiers in Paris after the city’s liberation in World War II.

She eventually married ‘her Norman’ and lived with him in the north of England until his retirement, when they returned to France and settled in Montesson. Widowed for over 30 years, Alice always yearned for England and was happy to speak English and to have contact with her many friends from Thame when they visited Montesson, and especially liked to invite special friends round to her little flat to take tea in her English, china tea service, and biscuits in the English fashion.

In a statement, the Montesson Twinning Committee said: “Alice often made ​​sure to be present at the annual Fete de Carmen to meet our English friends and talk with them in English with her ​​delightful French accent.

“Alice was a very engaging personality, with dynamism to spare, and led a lifestyle so British. She had happily celebrated her 100th birthday in the nursing home Sartrouville where she lived for the last few years of her life, after which she had an article in the Journal of Montesson dedicated to her.”

The Mayor of Thame, Jeannette Matelot Green, a former Chair of the Thame & District Twinning Association, recalled meeting Alice: “Alice Williams was a lovely lady. I will always remember her sitting in her apartment in rue Felicien Lesages having come downstairs to meet me already in her late nineties. She served tea and then showed me photographs of her dear husband, who was English, and reminisced about her life in England. I was sad to hear she has left us but she made a great century !”

Alice Williams’s funeral was held on Monday, September 8, at the Notre Dame de Montesson church. She will be greatly missed when the Thame and District Twinning Association visit Montesson in a couple of weeks-time on September 19, for the weekend.