Chris Neilson
Chris Neilson was the main founder member of Stockport Humanists.
He was born in 1939 in central India where his father was superintendent of a gun carriage factory. He had two older brothers. When he was three the family moved to Calcutta and at the end of World War 2 Chris came to England, staying with an aunt.
In 1947 his mother bought a house in Southport whilst his father was working in Germany. His father died soon after. In 1951 they moved briefly to southern Africa.
Chris got his O and A levels through Southport Technical college, then went to Liverpool University to study Physics. He met his first wife De when working in a coffee shop during a summer vacation.
After graduating Chris went to work for the Atomic Energy authority at Windscale in Cumbria. He and De were married in 1962 and went on to have two sons.
In 1986 he joined the Scientific Services Department of the Central Electricity Generating Board in Didsbury.
Chris and the boys enjoyed seeing Manchester City play at Maine Road. He was also a lifelong model train enthusiast, building a set in every home he had. The final one was housed in the base of his Ottoman bed.
He had three grandchildren, and later five great grandchildren, but he and De separated in 2000 prior to getting divorced. Later he met Pauline and got engaged in 2005 and married in 2006.
After retirement Chis took up figurative modelling working in porcelain. He later commissioned a company to reproduce his three favourite ones in bronze.
Pauline developed Alzheimer’s from 2013 and Chris was her carer until she went into a home in 2020.
Chris was a non-believer for all of his life, so he joined Greater Manchester Humanists. In 2010 he set up the Stockport Humanist Group.
In 2012 he started campaigning for a Humanist voice included on the Remembrance Ceremony. With the help of Councillor Sheila Bailey this was achieved in Stockport in 2018 and the event was renamed Civic Act of Remembrance.
He was made Honorary President of Stockport Humanists in 2018.
He died on 23rd December 2023 after a few spells in hospital.
Pat Thompson
Patricia Anne Thompson was Chair of Stockport Humanists for many years.
She was born in 1949. She was going to be called Margaret Rose but her parents changed it on the day of her birth because she was born on St Patrick’s Day.
Pat was a lifelong humanist and was exposed to as many childhood experiences as possible including piano lessons, swimming, elocution lessons and ballet. Pat was clever at school, resulting in achieving 13 GCE O levels at a time that most people took a maximum of 10.
She spent most of her time on school work but made an exception for Buxton Field Club which gave her a solid grounding in knowledge of the natural world around her. She also enjoyed their walks.
At the time of her A levels, she had her first bi-polar breakdown. She had completed one paper achieving an A but was unable to write anything for the other three subjects. She went to Stockport college to retake two of
those A levels then on to Leicester University to read Social Sciences. After a few months she had another breakdown and left Leicester. She later obtained a librarianship degree at the then Manchester Polytechnic.
Pat was a librarian first at High Peak College out in Harpur Hill. then at Buxton College, now the Community School. When the school decided to turn the library into a computer lab, she went on to do admin work for the Refuse Department of High Peak Borough Council. Then in 2005, she got a job at Corbar View as a mental health advocate, trying to set up voluntary services for people with mental health problems. She did as much as she
could to make it more acceptable to discuss mental health issues in general.
After she retired she threw herself into a wide range of activities in Buxton, including the Green Party, Amnesty International, Dignity in Dying, Extinction Rebellion, and U3A. She was involved in a couple of attempts to get a
Humanist group in Buxton. She maintained her membership of Buxton Field club although balance problems prevented her going on walks in the last few years.
She also enjoyed Buxton Festival and was sometimes involved with the Fringe.
Pat joined Stockport Humanists when Buxton Humanists folded around 2011. She joined the Committee in 2012 and became Chair two years later. She played an active role in many other ways. She spoke to the group on Assisted Dying and Advanced Directives in February 2014. She led walks, worked on stalls and was active in getting another group going in Buxton.
As chair she always gave a knowledgeable introduction to the speaker and always managed to sum up the talk.
Pat died suddenly in January 2023.
