Obituary: Shelagh Davy - Veteran editor who made a difference

Hastings, East Sussex, UK – Retired former editor of Leather International, Shelagh Davy, died on 17 April, aged 79.
In an obituary in International Leather Maker, Martin Ricker, her successor at LI, now content director at ILM, wrote: “I succeeded Shelagh Davy as Editor of Leather International in 2009 after working for her on and off for almost 20 years. She was a real character, had a brilliant sense of humour and taught me so much about publishing and how the international leather industry works. She was my mentor, and I will miss her enormously.”

She was LI’s editor for 21 years – its longest-serving editor – until retiring in February 2009 and remained as consultant editor before stepping back altogether a few years ago.
Columnist Sam Setter explained how she set him on his journalistic path: “Back in 1999 I wrote to Shelagh Davy how a Canadian trader of wet-salted Costa Rican and Dominican hides had defrauded some buyers in Europe by loading containers with salt and keeping the salt from view with a stack of hides at the container doors. Shelagh published my complaint and caused the Canadian to go out of the hide business. Shelagh liked the way I wrote my mails to her and asked me to write some more of my leather business experiences. I did and that’s how Limeblast and Sam Setter started. We have remained in contact and her passing saddens me immensely. She was one of the pillars of the editorial part of the leather industry. I will never forget her and I am sure the industry will not either. Rest in peace Shelagh! You really made a difference!”

My wife, Joanne, who represented S&V at a number of fairs, met her several times in Hong Kong, and remembers “a very quick sense of humour, sometimes sarcastic, and always fun to be with”.
I met her at a few fairs, too, mostly in South Africa. She was unmissable: very overweight, rosy-cheeked and, at that time, wild haired, but always interesting and entertaining to talk to. As her correspondent for a time in South Africa, she was kind to me, tolerating my inexperience, and only once putting pressure on me; that was for an obituary for Mossop Western Leathers MD Tony Mossop, for whom she had huge admiration.
After her retirement, she said she was interested in doing genealogical research into her ancestors, and she offered to help me research my roots, too. I’m sorry I didn’t take her up on it.