Our friend Christine Davis, who has died of cancer aged 70, spent 40 years serving on a wide range of public bodies. She cared deeply about justice, poverty, energy policy and interfaith relations, which were all informed by her Quaker faith.
She was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, the only child of Bill Aitken and his wife, Betsy Murison, both librarians. She grew up in Scotland and studied modern history at the University of St Andrews. In 1968 Christine married Robin, a librarian with a book collection to rival her own, and their twin daughters, Marion and Alison, were born the following year.
Although trained as a teacher, Christine soon forsook the classroom for the committee room. She was a member of her local town and county councils; then graduated to energy bodies serving the north of Scotland, the Electricity Consultative Council and the Hydro-Electric Board.
Christine’s extraordinary talent for committee management and corporate decision-making led to her being much in demand from organisations as diverse as the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board, the Rail Passengers Committee for Scotland and the Falkland Centre for Stewardship. Her most notable public service, for which she was appointed CBE in 1997, was as founder member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board in 1987, and later its chair (1991-98).
The high value that Christine placed on equality and stewardship sprang directly from her faith as a member of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. She was involved at all levels of Quaker life and for three years was clerk to the national body, Britain Yearly Meeting.
In 1990 she represented all the Scottish churches on the new Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland and was the British Churches’ representative on the first Ecumenical Eminent Persons Group which visited South Africa in 1992, establishing a monitoring programme, that contributed to the success of the 1994 elections.
Away from public life Christine was happiest in Scotland, in sight of the hills. She lived in Dunblane, near Stirling, and enjoyed quiet times there with Robin and her family. She took pleasure in poetry and embroidery and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Quaker Tapestry in Kendal, Cumbria.
She is survived by Robin, Marion, and her grandchildren, Caitlin, Arwen and David. Alison predeceased her.
