FLORENCE BRENDFlorence Brend, who died at the age of 96, was the co-founder of one of the South West’s leading companies and head of one of North Devon’s best known families.She died at the North Devon District Hospital on 27 February, 2009 after a short illness.With her late husband, Percy, she started a business, which grew from a butcher’s shop in Barnstaple, to encompass hotels, garages and property.The companies owned by her family went on to employ more than 1,200 people and collectively became the eighth largest employer in the South West.Florence Brend was born in Grosvenor Street, Barnstaple, in 1912, the youngest of three girls. Her father was killed in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, leaving her mother to bring up the young family.Florence attended Ashleigh Road School, where she met her future husband, Percy. After initially training as a nurse and working with Dr Barnardo’s in London, Florence returned to Barnstaple to marry Percy in 1931, when she was 19.The couple were married for 51 years before Percy died in 1982 aged 69. By then, their children June, Richard, Patricia, John and Peter had expanded their businesses.June and her family became the owners of the Williams Arms and Squire’s Fish Restaurant in Braunton and Patricia and her family The Commodore Hotel in Instow.Richard, John and Peter, formed the Brend Hotel Group, set up Taw Garages and acquired two Esso petrol stations, and established a property portfolio.At the time of Florence’s death Brend Hotels owned 11 luxury hotels and two restaurants in Devon and Cornwall, and was the Westcountry’s leading hotel group.While her husband was serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, Florence ran the family business from Butchers’ Row in Barnstaple.She later played a key role in managing the company’s growing number of hotels and restaurants and supervised all the décor and furnishings.Outside of her business life, she was well known for her charitable works and organised sales to provide food parcels for local people at Christmas.In addition, she was a former president of the Barnstaple branch of the RNLI, a past president of the local branch of St John Ambulance and was awarded the Order of St John.In a joint statement, her children said: "Our mother was the matriarch of the family and was hugely supportive to her children and grandchildren in our personal lives and business ventures, right up until the time of her death."She was a wonderful mother and grandmother, generous in spirit and deed, loving and loyal."
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