“Sandra had a very peaceful end and a very eventful life but a tragedy in between.”
By Victoria Munro

Mark and Sandra at the Verdon Roe Court Christmas party last year (courtesy of family)

A Chingford woman and an “interesting local character”, whose mother was immortalised in a Lena Kennedy novel, died last month after a tragic fire.

Sandra Lee – sometimes known by her middle name Frances – died in hospital on 26th October, only a few weeks before her 79th birthday, after suffering serious burns.

Her cousin, Mark Hough, told the Echo the smoke alarm in her room at retirement home Verdon Roe Court in Flaxen Road went off shortly before 3pm that day.

Staff raced into the room, where Sandra was standing with her dress on fire, with bowls of water to douse the flames but sadly her injuries proved fatal.

Mark said locals are likely to recognise Sandra as the woman who “always wore a cowboy hat”, adding the family found “about 50” hats in her flat, including a costume policeman’s helmet.

He said: “Years ago, before she stopped being able to go out, she used to ride around on a little tricycle with her Yorkshire Terrier in a basket.

“She was just one of those people who liked to sit on a park bench watching the world go by. She was very, very, very friendly, especially when she’d had a few drinks, and would talk to absolutely anybody.

“She almost looked like she came from the countryside, she had one of those nice round faces with rosy cheeks and always preferred to be outdoors.”

Sandra’s mother, who Mark said was “a bit like the actress Dandy Nichols”, was also well-known locally and appears briefly in a novel by Lena Kennedy, an author famous for writing about the East End.

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In the novel Autumn Alley, Mark said: “There’s a mention of a character who used to sit on the windowsill down by the pre-fabs in Lea Bridge Road drinking a bottle of gin, wearing a hat and a red dress. From the description, it was my aunt.”

Sandra was born in the famous Mothers’ Hospital in Hackney and spent most of her life in the borough.

In addition to working at Butlers Retreat and behind the bar at the Greene Man pub, she “did a little bit of what you might call unlicensed market trading”, selling clothes and jewellery out of a suitcase.

Mark said: “It was often down the High Street, outdoors or in pubs and she was often thrown out of pubs because of it.

“She sometimes got arrested but, when she got into a bit of mischief with the police, it was almost in a jokey way. She was the sort of character they used to call harmless.

“She did have some mental health problems, which is why she ended up at Verdon Roe Court, where she was really well looked-after by the staff there.”

Mark praised the Verdon Roe Court staff, who “did everything they could” to save his cousin, but said she was left with “very bad burns”.

He said: “The paramedics told me to come straight away and had her speak to me on the phone because they thought she might not last until I got there.

“When I got there she was conscious but sedated[…] We exchanged a few words and a couple of jokes before they gave her more sedation and took her to hospital. She never woke up again.”

Sandra died at the Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, where she was taken by London’s Air Ambulance, around seven hours later.

Mark added: “Sandra had a very peaceful end and a very eventful life but a tragedy in between.”

Sandra’s death will be subject to an inquest, which is ongoing at the time of writing.

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