Worship at the Abbey

A Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Dame Lesley Strathie DCB

25th October 2012 at 12:00 pm

A Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Dame Lesley Strathie DCB was held in St Margaret’s Church on Thursday 25th October 2012 at Noon. 

Lesley Ann Cooke was born in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway on 24th September 1955. She was educated at Stranraer Academy, left school at 16 and began her career in 1974 in what was then the Department of Health and Social Security.

She moved to London and to the Unemployment Benefit Service in 1984. By 1994 she was a district manager in the Employment Service and from 2001 was field director, then chief operating officer at the Department for Work and Pensions before being appointed chief executive of Jobcentre Plus in 2005.

Lesley was appointed to HM Revenue and Customs in November 2008, where she led HMRC through a period of reform, which included negotiation of the spending review settlement.

She influenced a generation of managers and presented the ‘big picture’ to organisations she headed. Lesley cared passionately about improving people’s lives and helping unemployed people back to work.

Lesley rose from administrative assistant to the top of the service and was continually committed to public service, fairness and equality.

Lesley was appointed DCB in 2010.

Dame Lesley died of cancer aged 56, on 14th January 2012. She is survived by her partner, Kevin White, her daughter and her mother. Her son predeceased her in 2010.