Chef and military wife
Born: June 13, 1934;
Died October 16, 2018
VISCOUNTESS Slim, who has died aged 84, was a cordon bleu cook and then, after her marriage to the second Viscount Slim, gave immense support to him throughout his distinguished military career. In that capacity she was admired for the help she gave to the wives of soldiers in the SAS, which her husband commanded, and those connected with the Burma Star Association. When she was with her husband in Aden and Cyprus in the 1960s she kept a pistol in her bag and was renowned as the fastest draw from a handbag.
Elisabeth Joan Spinney was born at the Scottish Missionary Hospital in Nazareth, in the British Mandate of Palestine, where her father, Rawdon, was managing the family retail chain which he had founded in Alexandria in 1928. The stores were well established in many of the leading cities of the Middle East (it is known as the Waitrose of the Middle East) but it meant Slim seldom saw her parents throughout her youth.
Her mother, Joan (née Glegg), was Scottish and during the war Slim was brought up by her maternal grandparents at Maines House, an imposing mansion built in 1834 in Chirnside near Duns, Berwickshire. There she acquired the nickname of Buffy when one of her brothers called her Elisabuff.
She was educated at Calder House School for Girls in Seascale, Cumbria and then Paxton House, Berwickshire. She went to Edinburgh School of Cookery (then known as Atholl Crescent) where she furthered her love of international cuisine and became an accomplished singer and pianist. On qualifying she did the season and was presented at Holyrood Palace in 1953. She then worked as a governess for an Edinburgh doctor.
Slim went south to join the Tante Marie cookery school in Woking where she got her cordon bleu diploma and found positions in various well-established Chelsea restaurants.
She had met John Slim in Scotland when he commanded the Queen’s Guard provided by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Balmoral. They renewed their friendship in London and were married in 1958. One of their first overseas assignments was after her husband joined the Malayan Scouts, later reorganised as the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment (22 SAS). It was a regiment he was later to command.
When her husband commanded 22 SAS in Hereford, Slim provided moral and social support to the soldiers’ wives while they were abroad on dangerous missions. She was an excellent listener and comforted young wives and their children who found themselves distressed after a personal tragedy.
In 1971 her husband succeeded his father (Field Marshal Viscount Slim) as president of the Burma Star Association. She accompanied him on visits to branches throughout the country and built up a detailed knowledge of the soldiers who had fought during the bitter fighting in the jungle. Slim had a great facility for remembering the names of veterans and their families and was deeply involved in the comradeship inspired by the association.
Viscount Slim and their three children survive her.
ALASDAIR STEVEN
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