Lady Kenya Eleanor Tatton-Brown, née Kitchener, was a member of The Chelsea Society, who has died on 21st May 2022.
Born in 1923, the grand-daughter of the 2nd Earl Kitchener, she was brought up in Kent but her maternal relatives lived in Chelsea for many years. She joined the WRENS aged 171/2 – before the age of call-up. In those days you could choose which service to join, and as the daughter of a naval Captain her choice was never in doubt. After the war she trained as a physiotherapist and married John S Tatton-Brown. They had three daughters who were 11,10 and 6 when their father was Mayor of Chelsea (1961-62). She had happy memories of Chelsea Arts Club balls at the Royal Albert Hall.
They moved to West Sussex in 1961, and John died suddenly in 1971. Kenya then took an Open University degree, and served on the General Synod of the Church of England during the battles to allow women to be ordained (at that stage no one thought that a second battle would have to be fought to allow them to become bishops).
She was a Governor of Whitelands teacher training college (originally established in Chelsea where Whitelands House now stands) and a local school. She was a churchwarden, a mother, grandmother and great grandmother.
After the hurricane of 1987 devastated woods in West Sussex she planted some 7,000 trees with the help of her family and friends. She made many trips to Australia where her youngest daughter had settled, and travelled to many of the heritage sites of the world.
To contact the family email ketbww@gmail.com
