Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2010 | Page 33
interview
Island Life - October/November 2010
From a convent to the
World Cup skipper Judi has seen it all
WORDS: PETER WHITE - PICTURES: MARTIN POTTER
As a former High Sheriff, a magistrate,
“She was particularly good at jazz, and in
a director of the former IW Economic
Chinnor she often entertained the troops,
Partnership (now Natural Enterprise), a
playing in the village hall for dances or
campaigner for various causes, the wife of a
concerts. She sometimes played the organ
successful farmer and a mother of five, there
in church, and you always knew when she
is little that Judi Griffin has not successfully
was playing because a bit of ‘boogie-woogie’
tackled in her packed lifestyle.
would creep in – much to the children’s
She can even boast she may have helped
amusement, and disapproval of grown-ups.”
England – skipper Bobby Moore in particular
Judi’s family moved to the Island in 1947,
– win football’s World Cup back in 1966!
buying a bicycle shop in East Cowes. She
Judi came to the Island as a young girl,
smiled: “Our fortunes went up and down
immediately fell in love with it, and that
according to how many orders were in the
love has never wavered. After she spent a
shipyard. In the good times we had two
year in a convent in Paris as a teenager she
shops, and lived in ‘the big house at the top
had designs on travelling the world. Now,
of the hill.’ But not all the time.
looking back, she is glad she opted to return
“Growing up in East Cowes was a sheer
to the Island, marry husband Dickie, and
delight. I roamed the sea shore and played
spend many happy years with the family at
on the bomb sites with my brother, getting
Briddlesford Lodge Farm.
into scrapes and being told off because
Born Judi French in Chinnor, Oxfordshire
the bomb sites were extremely dangerous.
during the Second World War, she and her
We rode our bikes all over the Island, and
family later moved back to Barking.
She recalls: “We lived in the same road
as Bobby Moore who was the same
age as me.
“Our big sisters used to take us to
the park in our buggies, and inevitably
I played football with him. So of course
I played my part in helping England
win the World Cup. Unfortunately
Bobby died some years ago, but if he
was still around he would probably say
to me ‘don’t be daft’!”
She continued: “My great
grandparents came from all over the
country and settled in the East End of
London. My father’s grandfather was a
Freeman of the City of London, and my
mother Esther was a pianist. She had a
remarkable talent for playing anything,
picking the tune up after hearing it
just once.
Photo: Judi 5 months old with mother at Chinnor
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