Vera Armstrong

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Vera Armstrong MBE (born Mary Vera Marshall; 22 April 1904 – April 1992) was a British children's author and a lifelong leader in the Girl Guide movement. Over six decades she helped Guides around the world and founded the Guide Friendship Fund, which provides financial help to Guides overseas and is still active today. She received the Silver Fish Award, the movement’s highest adult honor, and was made an MBE for her services.

Born in Huddersfield, she attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College and even played tennis at Wimbledon. She began Guiding as a Brownie in Devon, became a Guide captain in Hull by 1933, and in 1947 was the first district commissioner of Paddington, helping Guiding to be at the forefront in London. She worked at the Girl Guide Headquarters starting in 1948.

In the 1950s she edited a Guiding educational film, The Wider World, and served on the Rangers Overseas National Committee. From 1954 to 1966 she edited The Trefoil, the Guide magazine. She was involved in the 1953 Guide Coronation tribute and in 1957 made a film at Windsor Great Park to mark the centenary of Lord Baden-Powell. She also served as an overseas representative on the international committee and joined the Olave Baden-Powell Society in 1984.

Vera published many books, mostly about Guiding, under her maiden name Vera M Marshall and later as M Vera Armstrong. She married Richard Shirley Tain in 1934; after their marriage ended in 1946, she married Brigadier Edward Francis Egerton Armstrong. The couple spent time in India before relocating to Gloucestershire in 1966. She died in Gloucestershire in April 1992 at the age of 87. In lieu of flowers, she asked that donations be given to the Girl Guides Association.