The plaque is unveiled for Beryl Windsor

THE sun always shines on the annual Angel Canal Festival, and the weather stayed true to form as dozens turned out to honour the “indefatigable” boater who kept the event alive for 20 years.

A “green plaque” – Islington’s version of the blue plaque scheme that recognises significant individuals – to commemorate Beryl Windsor was unveiled on the towpath near Angel on Wednesday, with friends, family, councillors and the CEO of the Canal & River Trust in attendance.

Ms Windsor and her co-organiser Sasha Keir took over the running of the festival in 1999, and worked voluntarily to raise five-figure sums each year to keep the free event going.

Ms Windsor’s husband Steve Burt, who met his late wife at the St Pancras Cruising Club, told the Tribune she would have been “chuffed to bits” by the celebration. He said: “She loved people – she had a Christmas card list of 400 people and a lot of them have amazingly turned out today.

Beryl Windsor

“Before I knew her she had ovarian cancer and that was life-changing because she wasn’t expecting to survive. So when she got through that she treated each day as it came, as being special.

“She had extraordinary energy right up to the time she died at the age of 80.”

The Angel Canal Festival was set up by local legend Crystal Hale in 1986 as a small event in her back garden, commemorating her successful campaign to save the City Road Basin from being paved over.

Mr Burt, who introduced himself to the crowd as “Mr Beryl Windsor”, added: “Canals will never be profitable so it’s up to us to persuade governments that funding is essential if we’re going to keep canals alive. You need to campaign hard.

“It’s something I know Beryl would have wanted me to say.”

Ms Windsor’s green plaque now sits beside Ms Hale’s on a wall overlooking the water.

Ms Windsor’s daughters, Anne and Louise Windsor, and granddaughters Rose, Lily and Bronte told the Tribune how Beryl had always loved the water, but that it was only after she recovered from cancer in her 50s that she decided to swap her commute into London for a narrowboat at St Pancras basin.

She named it the Anne Louise, after her daughters.

Louise said: “She used to kayak to work and she fell in a few times.

“She said that she was going to invent blow-up knickers so she’d just float automatically and scramble out.

“She was brilliant.”

Ms Windsor’s daughters have inherited the Anne Louise, and Anne and her daughter Rose have since bought their own vessels too. “We’re a fleet now,” Anne said.

Mayor Cllr Anjna Khurana said: “Beryl was the heart and soul of the Angel Canal Festival for over two decades and she poured her time, her energy, her passion, into making it the most wonderful event.

“This plaque is just a small way of saying thank you. May it remind everyone who walks down this towpath of the difference that one person can make.”

The Angel Canal Festival will return this year on Sunday September 7.