Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 29

INTERVIEW

life

More than your
everyday Mayor
Lora Peacey-Wilcox is somewhat unique. Born on a Cowes council estate she
eventually became the town’s mayor. Prince Philip summed her up perfectly on one of
several occasions when they met at civic functions. He told her she was like a breath
of fresh air, as she revealed far more than your average everyday mayor

The diminutive former Mayor of Cowes
and current IOW Councillor, 42-year
old Lora Peacey-Wilcox was the 11th
of 12 children in her family. Brought
up on a Cowes council estate built by
Polish prisoners of war, Lora was a
quietly-spoken child who rarely smiled,
but listened to everything going on
around her, a skill that was to come to
the fore in her role as Mayor of Cowes.
Adored by her family and by her teachers,
she was taught from an early age to respect
your elders, not to answer back, and, most
definitely, not to swear. “Our family was the
salt of the earth,” she laughs. “Our Dad
was a true Welshman and he was brought
up in a strictly religious background. He
never owed people money and that is why
we lived on a council estate. I suppose
he didn’t want to owe people money. He
paid his rent and owed nobody anything.”
Lora attended Love Lane Primary School
and school was a very happy time for
her. Although she came from such a large
family, she was never treated