Tributes after ex-Tiser reporter Clare Birch dies at 87

Margaret Clare Birch, known as Clare, worked for the paper during the 1950s, said her daughter Ruth Iveson.

Born in Kimberworth the daughter of Clara and Wilfred Hutchinson, Clare lost her mum at just 18 months old.

She married George Stanley Birch, known as Stanley, in 1954 or 1955 and had three children.

Stan and Clare (pictured) moved to live in Thyrbergh, where she remained until she needed to move to a care home in Nottinghamshire to be nearer to her daughter, Ruth. 

Ruth said: “Mum was a reporter for the Rotherham Advertiser when I was a little girl. 

“I remember her typing away her reports on her type writer.

“When Mum went into hospital to give birth to my brother, Dad attempted to type a report for her. The ‘tip taps’ were replaced by ‘thud, thuds’.” 

Widowed at 35, Clare trained to be a teacher and taught at Northfield Lane Infants School in Wickersley until her retirement in her late 50s.

Ruth added: “Mum enjoyed her teaching career and often told me stories about it.  I recall a child asking Mum how to spell ‘sex’.  

“Obviously Mum was curious at to what context this child wanted to use this word, and was told: ‘Mrs Birch, Mrs Birch I’m writing about beetles, spiders and things, you know insects’”. 

Clare had six grandchildren, and learned sign language to communicate for one who was diagnosed with autism at an early age and was non-verbal.  

She also loved travelling the world, taking in China, India, Canada, Russia, the Antipodes to name a few places. 

Clare was a founder member of Rotherham u3a (University of the Third Age) and became the membership secretary, for some time leading its walking group and line dancing group.

She later suffered sight problems but continued using computers, reading and knitting.

And after she developed Alzheimer’s disease, Ruth said, her sense of humour “seemed to be enhanced”.

Clare died peacefully at home in Nottinghamshire on October 28.