I met Kathryn at the first indoor meeting of the Conchological Society that I ever went to, in 1986. I clearly remember her wearing rainbow coloured tights and as she was then in her fifties it seemed slightly eccentric. I recall thinking “she seems my kind of person” and from that moment on a friendship was born. I have no idea what our first topic of conversation was (snails?) but we covered a lot of subjects in the following 20 years or so. I used to look forward to Kathryn’s elaborate and inevitably late entrances to meetings and we had many long phone conversations and erratic Kathryn Lange correspondences; I visited her in her London and Wiltshire homes and was lucky enough to join her on a trip on the QEII.
Kathryn was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on 4 February 1930. Her parents were quite wealthy landowners of Irish descent. She lived for a time in Scandinavia but had settled in England more or less permanently by the 1970s. She became interested in snails after finding a Cepaea on a visit to Stonehenge. At the time she didn’t know that snails could not go in and out of their shells and it was from trying to find out that she discovered the Conchological Society. The snail was given the name of Druid and was well travelled, going back and forth to the US with her (illegally!) for a number of years.
Many members will recall her coming to meetings through the 1980s and 1990s, invariably about 20 minutes into the lecture, and then proceeding to change her shoes. This was a hangover from her time in Denmark where it was normal to have outdoor and indoor clothing because it was so cold. In latter years, due to arthritis which gave her more problems than she cared to admit, she would hobble in on sticks or crutches. She spent a lot of time at the January meetings going around the room and asking everyone what were the best and worst things of the previous year and what their wish for the New Year was. Kathryn planned to make a book of this but I don’t think it ever happened.
Kathryn adored animals of all types. I once did some gardening for her and was instructed to put all the garden snails in a container so I didn’t hurt them – there was a deduction from my income for any that were inadvertently killed. She had a lot of rabbits that lived in a separate house with rabbit sitters (usually unemployed youngsters who stayed in the house rent free) as well as a parakeet called Bongo and later a Burmese cat called Posh, whom she worshipped. She hated injustice and although wealthy was never ostentatious. She would spend money freely on whatever or whomever she felt deserved it, but rarely on herself unless it was another pet. She would go regularly on the QEII and when I commented how pleased I was to get a postcard from that ship she said I should come next time and meant it. I was amazed to find I was one of about 20 guests of hers. Her acquaintances were from all walks of life – on that voyage alone two scientists (one an old school friend) who had developed the polio vaccine, her car mechanic, a BBC producer and her husband, several friends from the tennis club and neighbours from London and Wiltshire.
Kathryn died on 4 January 2010, having been ill for about a year. In her last days she was in a nursing home which would have sapped her independent spirit enormously. She was completely unique and unforgettable. Rest in peace, Kathryn.