A True Life Fairy Tale

When Betty Devlin was approached by a woman asking to meet her parents, she was convinced she was in trouble.

The nine-year-old had been running around St George's Church fete in Waddon during the summer of 1940.

"My wild hair was in plaits but I was doing so much running around they came loose and it was flapping around my waist," says 73-year-old widow Betty,, at her home in the Whitgift Almshouses in North End.

"This lady came up to me and asked if she could see my mum and dad. I was supposed to have gone straight home after Sunday school and I thought I was in such trouble."

However, far from landing herself in hot water, Betty's carefree frolics had captured the eye - and the imagination - of Croydon artist and author Cicely Mary Barker who had just spied the next model for the latest of her Flower Fairy creations.

The artist soon visited Betty's family home in Goodwin Gardens, "I remember her as a very tall, slim, delicate-looking lady with long, slim hands," says Betty.

"She arranged to pay my parents a shilling an hour and that I would go to her house every Saturday and pose for her while she painted.

"My dad didn't approve, but my parents needed the money and couldn't afford to turn it down."

For several weeks, Betty's brother walked her up to Cicely Mary Barker's house in The Waldrons, where the artist lived with her mother and sister.

Most of Cicely Mary Barker's models were children borrowed from her sister's kindergarten.

"I never saw any of the other children," recalls Betty. "It was such a big house. Her studio was right at the top.

"I remember being fascinated by her budgie and, when it moulted, she would put the feathers in an envelope for me. I used to stroke the feathers and thought they were beautiful.

"I remember she insisted on calling me Elizabeth. Perhaps she thought it improper to call me Betty. I never wore any costumes or held anything - she would use her imagination for that."

Betty cannot remember how many of the Flower Fairies are based on her, but knows she was the inspiration for the Christmas Tree Fairy, Willow Tree Fairy, Elder Fairy and the Lavender Fairy.

She adds: "It was all a bit unreal for me really, going to her house every Saturday to be turned into a fairy. But it was also very exciting.

"I loved going there. She was a very, very sweet person. Very gentle and softly spoken."

Betty's magical summer was followed by heartache the following year. In May 1941, the bombing of South Croydon's bus depot during the Blitz resulted in the death of her 59-year-old father, who was working there.

Soon after, Betty and her siblings were separated from their mother and evacuated to the countryside until the end of World War Two.

During the 1980s Betty was presented with six original commemorative plates featuring her fairies, which now hang proudly on her living room wall.

Great-grandmother Betty believes she may be one of three surviving fairy models.

Betty with one of her fairy plates.

In 2000 she was invited to help plant some poppy bulbs in the walled garden in Park Hill Park to commemorate the artist.

Thinking of how she is immortalised as a fairy always brings a smile to Betty's face.

"I always told my children I would live forever," laughs Betty. "They are really proud. Whenever they see a picture of one of my fairies they tell people 'that's my mum'."