First joining the army as a treasurer in 1967, Mrs Radford took on the secretarial role in July 1976, and has run the Friends Together group ever since.
‘I don’t know where 50 years have gone,’ she said.
‘I have done my best to lead and encourage those who have joined our meetings on Thursdays, and to make the afternoons interesting and helpful.’
The Friends Together group – originally called ‘Home League’ – is a community group geared towards combatting loneliness and creating friendships. Under Mrs Radford’s watch, the Guernsey group has maintained a regular membership of around 20, though she recalls the number being higher in the decades gone by.
‘It’s somewhere for people to go to find community,’ she said.
‘Some people live alone or might want to make friends, so it’s good to have a place for them to spend time together.’
While Mrs Radford has been a Salvation Army local officer for half a century, her history with the group dates back some 73 years, to a time when officers Major Minnie Johnson and Lieutenant Alice Lomax were running the Guernsey branch.
‘Major Johnson gave me a framed picture of Jesus in a boat with his disciples. The wording beneath said “Follow Me”. I was 17 at the time,’ Mrs Radford said.
Even back then, she felt called to become a part of the Salvation Army, and, 14 years later, she began to fulfil that vocation by joining her husband – a Salvation Army bandsman – in service to the organisation as treasurer.
‘I have enjoyed working for Jesus in his house each week, planning the programme, getting others to help, taking and planning the meetings,’ she said.
‘We have had a variety of events – afternoon teas, choirs, Paws for Support dogs, Fairtrade and Leprosy Mission speakers – over the years.
‘One that I will never forget was with a football theme. Vi Bourgourd wore a Man United kit and I wore the Vale Rec kit.
‘I put the tables lengthways, and we rolled the ball across to try and get it in each other’s washing up bowl “goal” – one at each end. It was a laugh but enjoyed by all.’
Mrs Radford originally planned to retire six years ago, purely on account of her fondness for the number 44, but decided to keep on working after her husband died.
‘I wanted to have something to do,’ she said.
‘But now I’m 90 years old. I do hope that someone else will take it on.’
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