Geoff Higgins, 1935-2025

Geoff who died in March this year aged 90 was a museum stalwart who was known to many of you. He undertook several roles but his most enduring legacy was as treasurer of the Trust from 2000 until 2016. He was only the third treasurer to take on this financial responsibility.

Geoff could often be found hard at work in the Museum.   

When he handed over the treasurership to Phil Sharpe, Geoff took on the task of documenting and archiving the immense amount of material bequeathed to the Museum by honorary archivists Roy and Sheila Morgan. To this end, Geoff built bookshelves at his home in Maisemore Gardens to house the records and spent years sorting it before the data was available for research in the Museum's archive room.

Family history and local history were two facets of research that intrigued Geoff. He contributed short items to the newsletter and longer articles to The Emsworth Echo. Making use of the census returns, he also helped put on a 2012 exhibition in the David Rudkin Room showcasing "Emsworth People Over Seven Decades".

He was a great help to me as editor of the Museum periodicals because he masterminded the distribution of both the newsletter and the annual bulletin. He did that until well into the 2020s and knew all the distributors.

When Geoff died earlier this year many of his friends from the Museum, including his longstanding friend, Peter Morse, were present at his funeral which was held in the Oaks Crematorium at Havant.

Christine Bury

  Sheila Morgan, 1929-2025

Impressed by their research and accurate record keeping, David Rudkin appointed Sheila and her husband Roy to be honorary archivists to the Trust. They helped set up the Archive, now the Research, Room with extensive files about Emsworth properties and people. The Emsworth Echo included regular updates of their research.

Sheila Morgan died in Emsworth on 28th April, aged 96, just a few weeks after Geoff Higgins.

Sheila married Roy in 1950, initially living in Stafford, but moving to Emsworth in 1953 where their only daughter, Pat, was born. In 1956 they moved into a new house in Beacon Square. Roy died in 2020, and Sheila moved to White Lodge care home in 2023.

Always curious, the duo enjoyed classes in art and music appreciation, and local history research. Their house filled up with all the research files. Always questioning and with a very wide general knowledge acquired from lectures and reading, Sheila was an avid crossworder. Her great skill was an eagle-eyed attention to detail which is clear in her work for the Museum. She was always very unassuming about that work, but the evidence of it is her legacy.

Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust Newsletter August 2025