Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2016 | Page 23

“I had to climb inside his brain
and pre-empt what he was
doing – by the time he told me,
I’d knitted half of it already. I
considered that to be a great gift,
to be able to work with somebody
like that”

Photo: Mrs Middleton’s Shop Tee shirt of Julia
Jackson print from photograph by Julia Margaret
Cameron, 2014

returning to modelling in a different guise
via TV commercials.
Having trained in acting for three years,
Gail landed some TV roles in shows
including Casualty and The Bill.
It was an accident in 2003, when she
broke her foot, that led her to start
chaperoning younger models for her old
Select agency – and it was through this
that her own fashion design aspirations
were re-ignited.
“One of the models I had at my house,
Amy Wear, suggested I do a fashion show,
and from that, top producer John Walford
offered to do it for me.
“Incredibly, we got big names like Anna
Piaggi and Isabella Blow on the front row,
and it all really took off from there”.
Gail teamed up with Amy Wear to create
the fashion label Weardowney, and ended
up with a shop in London’s prestigious

Connaught Village. By this time she
had encountered two of the big loves of
her life: Peter Middleton and the Isle of
Wight.
“We first came to the Island in 2004 and
fell in love with it instantly” she recalls.
“In 2006 we bought a little holiday home
in Yarmouth and spent every minute we
could here.”
Whilst they longed to re-locate
permanently to the Island, they realised
it would be a big leap, especially with
Gail’s youngest son Joe on the brink of
secondary school.
In fact it wasn’t until 2012, when Joe
was 13, that the family finally crossed the
Solent for good.
At that time, Peter had been given the
all-clear after his original treatment for
male breast cancer, and they were looking
forward to building a new life.

Sadly, he was to receive a terminal
diagnosis in 2015 – although he and Gail
were determined to make the most of the
time he had remaining.
As an active member of Freshwater
Independent Lifeboat and Coxwain of
the ‘D’Class boat he continued training
youngsters to become competent crew
members for as long as he was able, and
in May he even walked four miles of Walk
the Wight event to raise funds for the Earl
Mountbatten Hospice.
“He had an amazing quality of life
during the time he had left” says Gail.
“Peter died early, but being with him
over the last year underlined for us just
how important it is to live in the present
moment, and to enjoy what you have
while it is here.”

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