This site is a tribute to Iris Sutherland Smith. She is much loved and will always be remembered.

Iris sadly passed away on 4th September 2021 aged 100 years.

Iris' funeral service will take place on Thursday 23rd September at 12 noon.

The family have asked for family flowers only please, however if you would like to leave a donation in memory of Iris it would be gratefully accepted for NSPCC.

Iris was born in Glasgow 23rd November 1920. Her father was an officer in the Gordon Highlanders and so she grew up where he was posted; Aldershot, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and finally in Aberdeen where he became manager of the regimental officers’ club until 1950.
She matriculated at the Sacred Heart School in Aberdeen and could have gone on to university had not the war intervened. During the war she worked as a secretary in the Ministry of Defence being personal secretary to the popular novelist, Dennis Wheatley as well undertaking duties in the intelligence services. After the war she was posted to Egypt where she continued her intelligence duties until she met and married a Captain in the Royal Dragoons who became the father of her six children. His duties and work after his military career took her to Germany, Pakistan, back to Egypt, Malaysia and to Ghana. Thereafter she lived in England although she still travelled extensively on holiday when the opportunities arose.
In 1968 she resumed her education and achieved B.Ed. specialising in teaching English in secondary schools. She took up a post at Highsted School in Sittingbourne where she remained until retirement as Head of English. In 1985 Iris re-located to Swaffham in Norfolk and lived an active life in the community notably running the town’s annual arts festival into the 1990s bringing a number of distinguished writers to read in the town. She made a number of friends whom she entertained with her legendary cooking and also kept an open house for troubled souls. Iris spent the  last few years of her life  in a home where she was well cared for and won the love and respect of those who cared for her.