My friend Patricia Crowther, who has died aged 97, was one of the elders of Wicca, a movement that grew, during her lifetime, from an underground witchcraft cult into a global religion known to its adherents as “the Craft”.
Born in Sheffield to Clare and Alfred Dawson, local tobacconists, Patricia attended Eastbank high school and Whiteley’s secretarial college, and also studied at the Constance Grant school of dance. A keen dancer and accordionist, she made her career in the theatre playing in revue, variety, pantomime and the summer season across Britain.
