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LAST WORD
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Last Word
Listen to the latest editionFriday   16:00-16:30
Sunday 20:30-21:00 (rpt)

Radio 4's weekly obituaries programme
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We welcome your comments and suggestions contact us
This week
Friday 20th October 2006
(rpt) Sunday 22nd October
Matthew Bannister
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have died recently. This week: Marc Hodler, Lucilla Andrews, Hugh Merewether and Bluma Feld.
Marc Hodler
Olympic whistleblower who has died aged 87.

In 1998, Swiss member of the International Olympic Committee, Marc Hodler threw the Olympic movement into crisis when he publicly revealed widespread corruption. Six IOC delegates were expelled and four resigned.

He was a talented Olympic skier who became the coach of the Swiss team when injury forced him to retire from the sport. He was president of the International Ski Federation for more than forty years.

Matthew Bannister talks to Lord Coe, Chairman of London’s successful bid to host the 2012 games and to Mr Hodler’s protégé and successor as president of the International Ski Federation, Gian Franco Kasper.

Marc Hodler was born October 26th 1918. He died on October 18th 2006.

Lucilla Andrews
Romantic novelist and nurse who has died aged 86.

Romantic novelist Lucilla Andrews was a Nightingale nurse during the Second World War. On the early death of her husband she drew on her experiences and began writing hospital love stories. She wrote thirty five books, her first in 1954, her last in 1996 and was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists Association. The novelist Ian McEwan acknowledges her memoir “No Time For Romance” as inspiration for his novel “Atonement”.

Last Word explores the life of Lucilla Andrews with her paperback editor and President of the Romantic Novelists Association Diane Pearson, writer Ian McEwan and extracts from her autobiographical memoir “No Time for Romance” read by Miranda Keeling.

Lucilla Andrews was born on November 21st 1919. She died October 3rd 2006.
Hugh Merewether
Test pilot who has died aged 82.

Hugh Merewether was one of the British test pilots who pioneered the vertical and short take-off and landing of the Harrier aircraft. He was the deputy chief test pilot at Hawker’s airfield at Dunsfold in Sussex, when he joined the chief test pilot, Bill Bedford, in developing the techniques of vertical take off in the P.1127 which made it’s first hovering flight on the 21st October 1960.

Hugh’s courage in tackling the dangers of flying an experimental aircraft won him the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air and an OBE.

Matthew Bannister talks to Duncan Simpson a fellow test pilot at Dunsfold and close friend of Hugh Merewether.

Hugh Christopher Henry Merewether was born in South Africa on May 20th 1924. He died on September 13th 2006.
Bluma Feld
Caterer & hotelier who has aged 99.

Bluma Feld was a legend in the Jewish community as the spirited matriarch of the Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth. She set the standard for the Jewish package holiday on the South Coast, providing her guests with top class entertainment from the big names of the day, regular services in the hotel’s own synagogue and huge quantities of high quality kosher food, one of her great loves. The other was her family. She was the head of five generations and had a son and a daughter, five grand-children, eleven great-grand children and three great great grandchildren.

Matthew Bannister talks to writer Michael Freedland and to Bluma’s great-grandson James Inverne.

Bluma Feld died August 9th 2006.
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