HANOVER, NH — Pamela M. Phipps died on December 7, 2019 at her home in Kendal@Hanover. She was 98. She was born September 5, 1921 to Walter and Mabel Scoffin in Bromley, England and was educated in Bromley schools graduating from business college as a typist and short hand specialist.
On September 3,1939, 2 days before her 18th birthday, WW II began when the Germans attacked Poland. Shortly thereafter they attacked England. That fall, Pam took the Civil Service exam and was called to work in the Admiralty. In 1940 the Admiralty was moved from London to Bath, in western England, to escape the German bombs. But Bath was bombed too. She was moved back to London where the Admiralty building’s basement served as the bomb shelter. Simultaneously, she served as a “Fire Watcher” whose mission was to help extinguish fires started by incendiary bombs. Pam was signed onto the War Secrecy Act never to disclose what she actually worked on during those years. Forty years later her cousin reported that “her lips were still shut.” However, she did volunteer that food was very limited and that they ate mostly cabbage and mashed potatoes.
At the end of WW II the British Government asked for 6 volunteers (two from each branch of the Armed Forces) to go to New York to assist in the setting up of the United Nations. Pam, then just 25, was chosen from the Admiralty. During the day she sat in meetings with, among others, Mikhailovich Molotov, Secretary/Governor Averill Harriman and Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden. But at the end of the day her arrangements were distinctly less glamorous – poor pay and accommodations. She accepted a double date with a newly de-mobilized US Navy Lieutenant, Harry Phipps, who was told to “get her a decent meal.” Six months later they were married in Denver, CO where Harry was temporarily on a job assignment as an accountant.
Harry’s jobs as an accountant with the US Government took him all over the world and Pam accompanied him supporting his work and sometimes working herself. They lived in Ankara, Turkey where she worked with the US Military Mission to Turkey; Chateauroux, France at a US Air Force base, and the US Virgin Islands. In 1980, when it came time to retire, Pam & Harry moved to Chagford, England on the edge of the Dartmoor National Preserve, and then to near-by Exeter. As Harry approached 80 they returned to the US and entered Kendal@Hanover at its’ opening in 1991. For a brief period they enjoyed ownership of a summer cottage in Steuben, ME.
Pam was a self-taught, prolific watercolor artist. From her portfolios one can follow her around the world – Turkey; France; Virgin Islands; England; America. The walls of Kendal have many examples of her work.
Her English 2d cousins Ian Hunter, and Ian’s wife Norah Hunter, Jean Wallis, and Michael Anthony survive Pam. Her surviving nephews on Harry’s side of the family are William Pape, of Cottekill, NY, John Pape, of Fort Collins, CO, and Catherine P. Alexander Woods of Davenport, IA. Harry died in 2006 and, sadly, their two boys pre-deceased them in their infancy.
Pam loved animals to distraction. In later life she had two Bedlington Terriers that she adored. A few years ago Pam displayed some of her paintings for sale at the Upper Valley Humane Society with all proceeds going to the Society. Donations in her memory may be made to the Upper Valley Humane Society, 300 Old Rte. 10, Enfield, NH 03748. She donated her body to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.