| Notes |
- Prunella Stack OBE was 15 years old when in 1930 her mother launched the Women's League of Health and Beauty. Mary Bagot Stack believed that her daughter's robust good health, her beauty and grace, were in no small part due to the exercises and dancing which were an integral part of her daily life. She was upheld as the embodiment of the ideals in her mother's training and labelled the 'perfect girl' by the press. It was a description which she had no difficulty in living up to. She played a prominent part in the publicity-seeking events of that time as well as the development of the League into the national and international organisation it became.
Prunella Stack OBE was 15 years old when in 1930 her mother launched the Women's League of Health and Beauty. Mary Bagot Stack believed that her daughter's robust good health, her beauty and grace, were in no small part due to the exercises and dancing which were an integral part of her daily life. She was upheld as the embodiment of the ideals in her mother's training and labelled the 'perfect girl' by the press. It was a description which she had no difficulty in living up to. She played a prominent part in the publicity-seeking events of that time as well as the development of the League into the national and international organisation it became.
Prunella was only 20 when her mother tragically died, leaving the future of the League in her hands. She threw herself into teaching, performing, and public-speaking with great skill and considerable charm. She was involved in all the public displays and performances and she led WLHB teams at international physical education congresses. She was invited in 1937 to be a member of the National Fitness Council.
In October 1938 she delighted everyone, the press in particular, by marrying Lord David Douglas-Hamilton in Glasgow Cathedral which was attended by a thousand friends, family, WLHB teachers and members. Sadly, only 6 years later he was killed while serving with the Royal Air Force. Prunella was left a widow with two sons, experiencing the same loss as her mother had done, at almost the same age. She dealt with her pain by looking after her sons and continuing her mother's work. After several years helping with the effort to rebuild the membership decimated by the war, Prunella married again. This took her and her sons to Cape Town in 1950 where her new husband Alfred Albers was a surgeon. Tragedy was to visit a second time though, when after only nine months of marriage, he was killed in a climbing accident on Table Mountain. She stayed in the Cape and continued the work she had already begun. She established the League there by opening classes first in the coloured community where they were obviously needed and then only later for white women. She made the headlines in 1953 by managing to organise a mixed race team to travel to England for the Coronation display.
Prunella returned to England in 1956 where she immediately resumed her work. A few years later on, in 1964, she married Brian Power, a barrister and lecturer in communications. They lived in London and enjoyed a much-loved cottage in Scotland. Her enthusiasm for exercise and movement always kept her abreast of developments in physical education and dance from which she absorbed ideas which could be integrated with her mother's Bagot Stack training. Her special interest was in training new teachers and, above all, encouraging a new generation of women who were able to guide her mother's work into the future.
Today, Bagot Stack principles are used in classes all over the UK, in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The practice of good posture, balance and strong central control underpins the blend of exercise and dance to create movement in sociable, non-competitive and energetic classes that can be enjoyed by the fit and the less fit; the able-bodied and those less able; by children young people, adults and older people, providing a firm foundation for lifelong exercise and fun.
In April this year 92010), Prunella attended, with her family, the glittering celebration of 80 years of Bagot Stack at the Royal Albert Hall. 600 teachers and class members performed in 2 memorable shows, demonstrating the variety, energy and sheer verve of Bagot Stack today. Her enjoyment and pride were evident, not more so than when her grand-daughter, Saba Douglas-Hamilton, gave the commentary for the children's item, 'Augustus and his Smile'.
Prunella's life was a varied and fulfilling one with more than its fair share of tragedy which she overcame with characteristic spirit and courage. As a wife, mother and grandmother, her family life gave her much joy and support, especially after Brian's death in 2008. Throughout her life the legacy of the League which her mother left her was always central to her existence and she worked tirelessly to ensure its survival. Over the 80 years since the League began, thousands of women have been living proof of the benefits of the training which Mary Bagot Stack devised and which Prunella continued into the new century. As she did, they enjoyed high levels of fitness, fun and friendship throughout their lives. Prunella was the perfect girl who became the perfect woman, much loved and admired by all who knew her.
|
1914 - 2010 (96 years)
