Molly Carleton obituary
Detail from a portrait of Molly Carleton MBE by her niece Biddy Peppin. Photograph: Biddy Peppin
Tributes are being paid to Margaret “Molly” Carleton, MBE who has died aged 103.
Molly, described as ‘marvellous’ and ‘a force of inspiration’, established the Community of Reconciliation and Fellowship charity shop, now on Narrow Way, and ran it personally for 30 years.
A spokesperson for the charity shop said: “She could see the value of all sorts of things. The shop was about making money but it was also about the bigger picture. She cared about it being there for people who really needed to clothe their children there or really needed that extra button.”
Born to the Reverend Cornelius and Mildred Carleton in Leicester, 1910, Molly trained as a nurse at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. During the Second World War she worked in tuberculosis and venereal disease clinics in Peterborough, as well as in an emergency maternity home for evacuee mothers.
In 1970 Molly retired and shortly after moved to Hackney, where she joined Friends Anonymous – now the Community of Reconciliation and Fellowship. The group was set up by Reverend Gualter de Mello at Prideaux House to plug gaps in Hackney Council’s provision for elderly and immigrant groups.
She became one of the group’s directors and for forty years was heavily involved in its work. Molly’s services to the organisation ranged from bread-baking to bereavement counselling, organising trips and parties to running book clubs.
In 2000 Molly Carleton was made an MBE for her contributions to the group.
Speaking about Molly at the charity shop, her niece, Biddy Peppin recalls: “I once took some things to her charity shop with my husband. He had a new camera and we thought it would be nice to have a picture of her outside the shop.
“As she posed for the picture a bus suddenly drove past. The driver leaned out of the window and shouted “Smile Molly!” Even the bus drivers knew her!”
Beyond her work at the shop, Molly also welcomed Ugandan Asian families at the West Malling reception camp and provided practical help to Monsterratians who moved to Hackney after the volcanic eruption, through which she gained many lifelong friends. In 2013, she was the eldest participant in the Well Street Pancake Race, aged 102.
Molly was also described as “very modern-minded” and in later life she mastered computing, long-distance scrabble and emails, and delighted in e-books.
In an interview in 2010, Molly said “it’s a lovely place to live in, Hackney… I think it’s friendly if you make it friendly”.
With over 120 friends attending her 100th birthday, it seems Molly Carleton did just that.
Molly bequeathed her body to the London Anatomy Office. She is survived by two nieces and their families.
Anyone is invited to attend the celebration of her life at St John of Jerusalem at 2pm on Saturday 13 September (tomorrow). The shop will be closed that day out of respect for the loss of Molly.