My wife, Margaret Cole, who has died aged 87, became a teacher of singing after a career as a performer. She sang in several BBC radio broadcasts and gave recitals for the Arts Council, often in partnership with Nina Walker, with whom she made her London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1956.
Peggy, as she was known, was born Margaret Hyde in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated at Macclesfield high school for girls. During the second world war she joined the Women's Royal Naval Service. She was stationed at a naval base in Bath during the heavy bombing of the city that became known as the "Baedeker blitz". Peggy was commended for her bravery, having volunteered during an air raid to move several staff vehicles out of a garage which had suffered a direct hit.
Returning to Macclesfield, Peggy enrolled in the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music), where she studied singing with Elsie Thurston. She gained the college diplomas for performance and teaching and won the Curtis gold medal and the prize for lieder performance.
We married in 1953 and moved to the Lake District and then Merstham, in Surrey. Our son Patrick was born in 1957 and Elizabeth in 1963. Life with a young family prompted her retirement as a performer, but in the late 1960s Peggy embarked on a full-time career as a teacher. She taught privately in Surrey and Shropshire, at the junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and in Holland. In 2005 she became an emeritus member of the Association of Teachers of Singing.
Health problems dogged her final years, but her courage and determination kept her in good spirits for the majority of the time and she was still teaching two months before her death. She is survived by me, Patrick and Elizabeth.
Marisa Coughlan Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi Jolene Blalock Nichole Robinson
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