A LONG-SERVING member of Huddersfield Choral Society has died.

Andrea Crawshaw, 62, passed away at Kirkwood Hospice following a long battle against cancer.

The Slaithwaite woman was a member of the choral society for 40 years, including 14 years as choir secretary.

Miss Crawshaw, who lived at Longlands Road in Hill Top, was also an active member of Fartown Trinity Methodist Church.

She was born in Lindley and four years later moved to Scammonden, where her parents ran the Upper Royal George pub – now the Jack O’Mitre. Miss Crawshaw was educated at Clough Head Primary School and Colne Valley High School.

She worked as a teacher at Emley First School and Nields Primary School in Slaithwaite before joining the Home and Hospital Teaching Service in the early 1980s.

She spent the following 20 years teaching sick children in Ward 17 of Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Miss Crawshaw, who was unmarried and had no children, was an active member of Huddersfield Choral Society for four decades.

President Conrad Winterburn said: “She was a very loyal member of the society and put in a lot of hard work into her time as secretary. She was liked by everyone who knew her.”

Choral society member Jean Parker had been friends with Miss Crawshaw since 1983.

She said: “Andrea was a very generous person and a good friend. She also had a great interest in art and local history.”

Miss Crawshaw was a senior steward at Fartown Trinity Methodist Church and a member of Huddersfield Friends of Church Music.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago. Miss Crawshaw passed away at Kirkwood Hospice on July 17. Her mother Ada died aged 87 three weeks earlier.

Miss Crawshaw’s funeral took place at Fartown Trinity Methodist Church yesterday.