Needham People Remembered

When Walt Disney bought a Needham lady a drink

Born in Aarhus, Denmark in 1930 Kirsten Inge Partington was largely brought up in Brazil where her father, a civil engineer had moved to from Denmark during the Depression years. She and her family were interred in Denmark after the German Invasion in 1941 and with the end of hostilities her father returned to continue his career in South America. She and her mother followed him back to Brazil in 1948 on a very slow steamer (the SS Cruz).  On board she met a young Englishman, Peter an engineer with Shell International, who soon became her husband, being married in Rio de Janeiro a year later. She had two sons (Colin and Bryan) in Sao Paulo and Rio and finally left Brazil in 1956. Peter was posted to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, in 1960 and the family remained there until 1964 when the Sri Lankan Government nationalised the foreign oil companies, forcing a repatriation to the UK before a further posting to Central Africa (Northern Rhodesia as it was known then). There followed a further posting to Thailand until 1968 when the family returned to the UK permanently. Peter retired from Shell and took up a teaching post in London and they acquired the Cottage in Needham. After enlargements had been made, Peter finally retired and they lived happily in Needham until his passing 26 years ago. Kirsten never lost the passion for travel and spent a lot of time on cruises to far off places including the South Pacific, East Asia, the Mediterranean, The Caribbean and Hawaii. She was very frustrated that her increasing debility prevented more travel. Fluent in Danish, English, Brazilian Portuguese and some German, she had trained as an interior architect, but never really managed to practice her profession due to the variable overseas postings. Despite her “wonder lust” she always felt at home in Needham. She is survived by her two sons and was always very supportive of them and their families.

And the story about Walt Disney is true – she met him in Copenhagen when he was visiting Tivoli to get ideas for Disneyworld and he bought her a drink.

Kirsten Inge Partington (1930 – 2018)

               Colin Partington