Public-spirited woman who left the town a lasting gift

THE Houses of Parliament are currently celebrating the first female peers to be admitted to the House of Lords and I was surprised to learn that this was just 50 years ago in 1958.

In October of that year Baroness Swanborough (Dame Stella Isaacs) became the first female peer to take her seat.

In Seaford, the first female to sit on the town council was Amy Chambers, the head teacher at the primary school in Church Street.

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The first female to be chairman of Seaford Urban District Council, however, was Miss Dinah Mary Beatrice Synge.

Dinah's father was Colonel Mark Synge, who brought the family to Seaford in the early 1900s.

Her grandfather was Sir William White Cooper, who was Queen Victoria's optician.

Mark Synge had served in the Indian Army and there is a brass plaque in the north aisle of St Leonard's church, not only commemorating him, but also Dinah's brother and sister who died in the 1930s.

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Dinah went to school at the Downs in Seaford (now the leisure centre) and on to Oxford where she gained an honours degree in Modern History.

She became a school teacher and worked at schools in Yorkshire before returning to Sussex just before the war to be the headmistress of Battle Abbey School.

It was here that she began a long life of public duty when she became an Air Raid Precautions warden. In 1941 she spent a year in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where she was involved in establishing an emergency hospital but returned to Seaford the following year.

She was a member of the Seaford First Aid Post which provided valuable assistance to many injured people during the many air-raids on the town.

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She also got a job as a teacher at her old school at the Downs.

In May 1949 Dinah Synge was elected to Seaford Urban Council as a Conservative but she continued her community work as a member of the St John Ambulance.

She later became a Divisional Superintendent and a Serving Sister of the Order of St John. As well as health matters, Dinah was particularly interested in planning and in facilities for the young.

In 1961 Dinah was elected the first female chairman of Seaford Urban District Council and received many letters of congratulation which are now held at Seaford Museum; she was re-elected as chairman the following year.

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Of course, Dinah left a lasting gift for the town, not only in her work as a councillor but also as someone who suggested the Seaford town motto E Ventis Vires (Strength from the Wind) '“ she obviously knew Seaford well!

Dinah lived in Sutton Park Road and was involved with a large range of community projects.

She was the chairman of the board of governors for Seaford Head School, a member of the horticultural society, the church parochial council, the local United Nations Association and the operatic society. She was the secretary of the Conservative Association and also the president of the Women's section of the Seaford British Legion.

As well as her many public duties Dinah worked with the WRVS and would have known about Baroness Swanborough taking her seat in the House of Lords in 1958.

Baroness Swanborough (also known as Lady Reading) was responsible for creating the WRVS.