What do a former England football manager, a dressmaker to the Queen and Doreen Lock have in common? They have all been honoured with a plaque commemorating notable residents as part of the 100th anniversary of the Becontree Estate in Dagenham. These plaques are part of a Barking and Dagenham council project with Create London. 

Doreen has been recognized for her volunteering work with the Independent Living Agency, a charity supporting the residents of Barking & Dagenham with disabilities. She is a passionate believer that ability should be the focus, and not disability.  Despite her own health issues, Doreen has encouraged others that an independent life is possible with the right support and encouragement. 

Doreen describes herself as a ‘proud Dagenham resident’ and was born Doreen Easton in the late summer of 1938 in Rugby Road. By December of that year, the weather had become bitterly cold and the Easton family, including Doreen’s two sisters and two brothers, would have seen a white Christmas with over a foot of snow on the ground. Keeping everyone warm and especially, four-month-old ‘Dolly’ (as her brother nicknamed her) would have been a challenge. 

Doreen began attending Monteagle Primary School with the war still looming large in everyday life. Despite this, Doreen has happy memories of knitting bootees for a favourite teacher who was expecting twins, although she would venture out of the borough to attend Redden Court School and enjoyed her school days there before leaving at fifteen to become a nursery nurse. 

Doreen went on to become a nurse at King George’s Hospital and Rush Green Hospital, and her career also included a spell in the Metropolitan Police, but she describes her time volunteering as being an ‘absolute joy’.

Doreen says that Dagenham has given her a good life, one that she continues to share with her husband, Trevor, and their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Only now, she has a plaque to prove it!