A champion of the Girl Guides who was appointed a Member of the British Empire for her services to young people on the island has died.

Joan Wilkie was 99.

Bruce Wilkie, her son, said Ms Wilkie was “a vigorous, concerned and dedicated woman to Bermuda’s youth and served on the Bermuda Youth Council, founded the Bermuda Youth Parliament and, of course, had a 70-year engagement with Guiding”.

Ms Wilkie was also the founding secretary of the Bermuda Philharmonic Society, and founding treasurer, as well as a tutor, at the Reading Clinic, where she taught children with learning disabilities for 16 years

Mr Wilkie said: “She was also just a decent, nice woman.”

Ms Wilkie was a leader and Island Commissioner of the Girl Guides, and was made a vice-president for life.

She received the Laurel Award for Guiding as well as the MBE in 1973 for her contributions.

The daughter of Arthur Gorham and Muriel Masters, Ms Wilkie married Pat Wilkie, of Scotland in 1945 after they met in Quebec, Canada.

The couple had a daughter, Gaye, as well as Mr Wilkie.

The family moved to Bermuda in 1950 when Ms Wilkie’s father offered her husband a job at the family business, Gorham’s hardware store.

Ms Wilkie ran summer camps for the Guides, and would pack up the family to move to Camp Messina in Dockyard or Ports Island in the Great Sound for the duration.

She sang in choirs and enjoyed gardening and bridge, as well as being a keen golfer and tennis player.

⋅ Joan Helen Wilkie, a former Commissioner of the Girl Guides, was born on September 2, 1921. She died on March 1, 2021. Ms Wilkie was 99.