Edith (Chandler) Mullan
Born In: Bethnal Green, England, United Kingdom
Passed in: SYDNEY, Nova Scotia, Canada
Passed on: February 25th, 2011
Edith Olive Winifred (Chandler) Mullan, aged 89, of Sydney, N.S., died at Cape Breton Regional Hospital, Sydney, on Friday, Feb. 25, 2011.
Edith was born July 29, 1921, in Bethnal Green, London, England, the first of three daughters born to Edith Webb and George Chandler.
From Bethnal Green, the family moved to Kingsbury in West London and then to Leeds where she attended high school and was confirmed by the bishop of Ripon in the Church of England. She was encouraged to attend university, but that did not eventuate; her love of reading and an editor’s view of written language would stay with her for life. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, working for the Army in May 1942, and rose to the rank of sergeant.
On Feb. 12 1944, she married, in Leeds, David John Mullan, born in Co Armagh, Ulster, on May 10, 1906, who was then company sergeant-major in the British Army. David died July 6, 1989, in Calgary, in the 46th year of their married life.
In 1954, the family moved from England to Alberta. David came first, in April, and prepared for the family to arrive in Edmonton. Edith and the three children sailed into Halifax harbour aboard the Georgic and passed through Pier 21 on June 24. From there she managed her family onto the train to Montreal, and then across the country to her new home. The family lived in Edmonton, then in Clover Bar (now absorbed by Edmonton) in Wetaskiwin, where she worked in the public library, then, in the summer 1958, to Calgary where she lived until her removal to Cape Breton Island.
She held various jobs in Calgary, finally working in an editorial capacity for Burroughs and Co., publishers of the Western Weekly Reports. In the decade until April 2005 she spent her winters in California.
She is survived by her three children, Margaret Payne (Bill), Napa, Calif., Jennifer Mullan, Ottawa, and David Mullan (Arlene), Sydney, N.S., with whom Edith had lived since July 2005. She leaves two grandchildren, Corinne (Tim), Calgary, and Joel (Deborah), Victoria; and two great-grandchildren, Logan Chandler Mullen and Ainsley Emma Mullan, both of Calgary. Her sisters also survive her, Joan (Don, deceased) Potter, Hertfordshire, and Audrey (’Bobba’, married to Eric) Lambeth, North Yorkshire.
Over her long life she was never without a strong attachment to the church and at the time of her death was an adherent of St. Anthony Daniel Roman Catholic Church.
Visitation will take place Thursday, March 3 at Fosters Garden Chapel, Calgary, Alta., from 7-9 p.m. Funeral service will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Fosters Garden Chapel. Burial in Queen’s Park Cemetery, Calgary.
Online condolences to www.twcurry.com.
