Beryl Rosemary Lodge was born on 26th February 1960 at home, (soon after her Mum had made the breakfast!) in Bedford, the town which was home for her first 35 years of life. She was the youngest of three children, after her brothers Alan (born 1952) and Derek (1956).


After primary school she attended Pilgrim Upper School, leaving in 1978 with three A-levels, including history, the subject she was passionate about all her life. They were, surprisingly, not good enough to get onto her chosen University course so she had to retake some. She soon saw that as a blessing, as it was around this time that she became a Christian through friends in Bedford; and going to Lancaster University to study History a year later she made friends with different people, with some of whom she kept in touch all her life.


She had a great time at Lancaster, and leaving in 1982 as a time of high unemployment she did a year’s secretarial course in Cambridge. She started at Cranfield University (near Bedford) in 1984 in an administrative role and progressed through increasingly responsible posts. In the last of these she was mainly supporting mature overseas PhD students, often providing help and advice with the additional pressures that they were under. She found it very interesting to learn about their varied cultural backgrounds, and this carried through into some of her later voluntary work in Lincoln.


Beryl’s life was rooted in her Christian faith, and she went to various Bible Weeks every year, often with Derek and his family. Her hobbies included reading, family history (with her Dad) and walking. 


She went on several walking holidays, on one of which in the Spanish Pyrenees in June 1994 she met David George. They decided to keep in touch, taking turns to travel up and down the M1 to visit each other, fell in love and were married a year later.


Initially she moved to David’s house in Nottingham but it was too small for all the possessions they had acquired as single adults and David was already commuting to Lincoln. So in 1997 they moved to the house in Birchwood, Lincoln, where she lived for the rest of her life. Whilst Beryl was very happy to be married, it took time to settle down after two moves in two years, added to which in August 1996 her beloved Mum died suddenly.


Very soon after moving to Lincoln they decided to check out New Life Church, as it was then, turning up on the last Sunday in August, to be told “they’re all at Grapevine”. Grapevine was the annual worship conference, now “Awaken” at Lincolnshire Showground. They started to attend the church regularly, joined Pete and Di Cook’s Connect Group and stewarded in the Big Top each year at Grapevine. Beryl also helped with several Alpha courses, making friends in the Church through them and the three Connect/Life Groups over the last 25 years of her life.


It took time to find permanent work but in 1999 she started work at Lincolnshire Archives. This and Lincoln’s rich history kindled an interest in local history, so in 2001 she enrolled on the MA in Local and Regional History at the University of Nottingham. She resigned from the Archives in 2002 to focus on the University course. By the time she graduated (with Distinction) in 2003 she was pregnant.


Caleb Philip George was born on 10th March 2004, just after her 44th Birthday, and became the focus of her life. She supported and encouraged him throughout his school education and then 3 years studying Creative Media at Lincoln College, which he completed tragically but bravely a few weeks after her death, qualifying with Merit.


Beryl gradually took on other voluntary roles, starting with the Globe Café for international students and workers (2007-2015). When Caleb started school she began voluntary research into the local history of Lincoln, which led to several published articles and continued right up to her death. Many local historians are grateful for the sheer breadth and depth of her work.


Her expertise in local history led in 2016 to Beryl being employed part time by Lincolnshire Co-op to research the history of buildings in the Cornhill Quarter of Lincoln, a major regeneration project by them and City of Lincoln Council. This led to the publication in 2018 of a book, given away free to tenants, prospective tenants and indeed anyone who wants one.


In 2019 she briefly worked for Christian Partners in Africa (CPA), but that autumn she was taken on again by the Co-op to research and write the sequel! Despite most of the research being done during Covid lockdowns this was published in 2020.


Following medical checks Beryl was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2021. Despite another lockdown an operation had already been booked for a few weeks later. This was followed by months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy until September that year, then 6 monthly meetings with the oncologist and scans of areas originally infected. She continued her voluntary work through most of this and afterwards, and even started with International Welcome Café in September 2022. 


Although the checks were planned to continue for years she seemed to have made a complete recovery as far as the family and the medical specialists were concerned. Tragically that was not the case and the cancer returned as the cause of meningitis, which had been undetected as there were no obvious symptoms until weeks before her death. Beryl died on 15th May 2023 after a short and largely pain-free illness.