Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2008 | Page 27

INTERVIEW

life

A life in service
By Martin Potter
& Roz Whistance

G

loria Minghella is uncomfortable
about her status as an Island
Treasure. She feels she’s been
lauded enough. Doyenne of the family
ice cream business, respected former
mayor and magistrate of many years’
standing – not to mention the mother
of five talented children – she has just
been awarded an MBE for her tireless
work for charity. “My motto has always
been ‘just get on with it’,” she sighs.

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But being remarkable doesn’t come
from nowhere. What is it that creates
such a capacity for empathy with
strangers? It was Gloria, after all, who
brought the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to
the Isle of Wight. Being touchy-feely
doesn’t normally sit with the dogged
quality required for public office.
When you arrive at Minghella’s,
the ice cream firm which she and her
husband Edward have made a household

name on the Island, you can’t help
thinking of other women who have
spent a lifetime at the top of their
game, and names like Thatcher spring
to mind. You feel a little nervous.
Such fears melt away (appropriately)
when she greets you. Gloria Minghella is
warm and welcoming, chatty and open.
There is something about her family, too
which strikes you. Gioia Minghella, her
daughter who is Managing Director of

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