Mrs Patricia Herrmann

Patricia was born in Stockport on 24 May 1927, to Philip and Hilda Robinson. Patricia was the older (by half an hour) of twin girls Patricia and Sonia, and younger brother to Bill. 

 Their father Philip was born in 1896; served in the Army and Royal Flying Corps during WW1, and then got a job in Lewis’s department store. Their mother, Hilda Gaul, born in 1897, worked in a munitions factory in WW1, and the two were married in 1924.

 Over the next 20 years, life for the Robinson family revolved around Philip’s career with the Lewis’s group. It involved many moves – from Manchester to Glasgow, then to London, and included spells in Liverpool and Manchester during World War II. The twins remained with their parents throughout these changes. They retained happy memories of their peripatetic existence for, being twins, they never suffered from loneliness and always had a companion through all their school changes. Patricia was the more academic of the two, whilst Sonia, having started drawing when she was 4, decided around the age of 7 to become an artist, and early achieved that ambition.

 Patricia decided against university although offered a place at Oxford’s Somerville College, and her love of books and reading led her to a job at the National Book League, a body set up at the end of the war to promote every aspect of books and reading. She learnt about typography, becoming a book designer. Her knowledge of publishing and her ability to work with people, authors in particular, led her to a job as a book editor at Faber & Faber, where she spent many happy years and met her future husband Frank Herrmann, the no.2 in the design department. 

 After their marriage in 1954, the birth of their first child, and the move in 1958 to a house in Essex, Patricia continued for several years to work as a freelance book editor for Faber & Faber and other publishers. Having a house, a husband and eventually four children took up quite a lot of her time, but she wanted and needed other activities too, preferably work that was not too far from home.

 She had always taken an interest in local politics and became involved in Essex, first as a parish councillor, then as a district councillor and finally also as a magistrate, together with work for several local organisations – such as saving and repairing derelict old houses; protecting the environment; promoting new businesses; and helping to fund and manage the production of the Victoria County History of Essex. To her considerable surprise she ended up being elected chairman of almost every organisation with which she became involved, and in 1997 was awarded an OBE for services to justice and to the community. After Frank’s death in 2017, Patricia continued to live at and enjoy the rural peace of their home in Essex.

 Patricia was particularly attached to two charities, VCH Essex (the county history), for whom she volunteered as a trustee and honorary secretary for 25 years; and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a player-led cooperative musical group whose concerts of classical music she attended whenever possible. We would be delighted if you were able to donate to one of those in memory of Patricia, and perhaps leave any memories you have below.

 Camilla, Lucilla, Paul and Piers Herrmann and family