Two Recent Obituaries
Connected To Kings Langley
Allan Butler

We are sad to report the death of Allan Butler at the age of 89. Allan was born in 1920 at No 5 The Common, an old house owned by his grandfather Thomas Butler, farmer at Hill Farm, Rectory Farm and Langley Lodge Farm. His family moved to Vicarage Lane in 1932. At the age of 14 Allan left the village school to work at Dickinsons and after a few years at Scammell Lorries in Watford which led to his marriage in 1940 to Kay Udall.
Allen recalled the 19 years of his life in Kings Langley in a booklet called ‘Does the Lark Still Sing?
The title was inspired by his happy boyhood memories of lying in a cornfield at the top of Coniston Road and watching the skylarks soaring into the sky. This evocative story is a delight to read, full of detail of people and events in the village. It is available through the Kings Langley Local History and Museum Society. (For details see : http://www.kingslangley.org.uk/publications.ihtml )

Lionel Munby

His many friends in the village will be said to hear of the death of Lionel Munby on Sunday 19th April 2009. He was a W.E.A. tutor in local history for many years. He lectured in many places in the East of England inspiring local historians and writing many books on local history. He and his wife Diana travel regularly from Cambridge to give lectures in Kings Langley.
He was the inspiration for, and the editor of, the definitive, ‘History of Kings Langley’ in 1963 [now out of print]. He encouraged the formation of the Kings Langley Local History and Museum Society 40 years ago. His lectures on reading and transcribing early wills inspired the publication of ‘Life and Death in Kings Langley’ by a dedicated group of his W.E.A. class in 1981. Years later he and Diana took a great interest and gave practical help in the second volume of wills, ‘Where There’s a Will There’s a Story’ in 2004. The two ‘wills’ books are still available from this society. ( http://www.kingslangley.org.uk/publications.ihtml )

(Extracted with kind permission, from reports by Alan Penwarden, in The Villager, May 2009).