We Remember ... Heroes of the Faith at St. Michael's - Chloe and Alan Belcham

CHLOE BELCHAM
1930 – 2 January 2012

Chloe was born Chloe A Stubings in 1930 in Staffordshire. She married Alan in 1952 and they had two daughters, Amanda born in 1954 and Sherrie born in 1957. Chloe and Alan spent most of their married life in Alwyn Avenue but Margaret Eccott thinks she remembers Chloe telling her that after they married they moved into a flat in Sutton Court in Sutton Court Road before moving to the Alwyn Avenue house.

Chloe was a milliner and a very adept needlewoman, inheriting these skills from her mother Theadora. She made the costumes for dancing displays at St Michael’s. She usually wore a hat in church, one of the few women to do so during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. She made the beautiful curtains in the Lady Chapel.

Like Alan she was a keen horticulturalist, a member of the Chiswick Horticultural and Allotments Society and was also an accomplished flower arranger. She often arranged the flowers in St Michael’s; her flower arrangements were ‘brilliant’.

Chloe and Alan were great supporters of St Michael’s over many years. They died on successive days in early 2012.

ALAN BELCHAM
1927 - 3 January 2012

Alan and Chloe Belcham always sat towards the front of the Church on the left hand side. Both dressed immaculately; they didn’t participate in the move towards less formal church-going clothes. Alan usually wore a three piece suit and in his later years grew a splendid beard, which gave him a rather nautical air. He jokingly referred to his hirsute persona as ‘brother Arthur’ to the clean shaven Alan. He was a longstanding member of the St Michael’s Players and appeared in two dramatic productions in Church – ‘Alternativity’ and ‘Barley Time’.

Alan was born in 1927 in Berkshire. He married Chloe in 1952 and they had two daughters, Amanda born in 1954 and Sherrie born in 1957. For most of their married life they lived in Alwyn Avenue. By profession Alan was an insurance broker. His great hobby was gardening and he was a long term member of the Chiswick Horticultural and Allotment Society. Latterly he was the Society’s President, retiring from that role in 2009.

A Churchwarden, a member of the Parochial Church Council for many years, and a Sidesman until shortly before his death, Alan was a loyal member of St Michael’s. He died on 3 January 2012, the day after Chloe’s death.