Biography of Rebekah

Rebekah came to Rye at Christmas 1978, a month before her ninth birthday, when her parents separated. She attended Freda Gardham primary school and Thomas Peacocke school. Her first job was at Rye Antiques Market on the Strand, when she was 13. She got £1 an hour which was good, she says. She went on to do Saturday jobs in the Mariners and Fletchers tea rooms, Grammar School records, Horrells chemists, and County Group estate agents.

Rebekah recognised that Thomas Peacocke was a fantastic school where there were many creative opportunities through music and drama, with wonderful teachers who really encouraged and supported children. Miss Benton, the music teacher, in particular, she says, changed her life, and helped her recognise that she didn’t have to live a life on benefits but could support herself through music. Aged 15, Rebekah gained a place in the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, some 130 youngsters from all over the UK, who met three times a year and performed in top UK venues, toured the west coast of America for six weeks, recorded for the BBC, ITV, EMI and others. In 1990 she was selected as one of just 20 youngsters for the newly formed National Youth Chamber Choir, representing the UK at an international symposium in Germany. Rebekah went firstly to the London College of Music in 1989, but it faced closure; she was then accepted at the Royal Academy of Music, and graduated with honours in 1993. She saved up enough money, working the Academy’s library, to fund a MA in music industry management at City University in 1994.

At the London College she met and married a conductor, and together they set up concerts at the famed St Martins-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square (this was before she’d graduated). They took a big gamble but it paid off, and within a few years were running 40 concerts a year here, and in other top London venues including the South Bank Centre. Rebekah ran their orchestra and also sang as a concert soloist, including a live recording from St Martin’s that was Classic FM’s first ever Christmas evening broadcast.

Rebekah decided that music had dominated her life for a long time and wanted to try something else. She tried to join the Met police but failed the fitness test, as many women did at the time. She ended up in the civil service. Firstly the Office for National Statistics accounting for central government expenditure, which she did not enjoy as she’d gone from a creative career into a very boring one, and then got transferred to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where she was office manager to a brand new team looking at best practice nationally in the arts. She organised major events in London for the arts quangos, but found it too easy and not enough work, so applied for a job at the brand new Greater London Authority. Somehow, out of 400 applicants, just six were chosen and she was one. She went to work for a political group (having no prior political knowledge) and thoroughly enjoyed starting up all the systems of work, liaising with stakeholders, writing press releases and research papers. She became the deputy chief of staff (personnel), and wrote the group’s response to the Mayor of London’s London Plan and his annual budgets. Again the work became too easy and she was offered the chance to work for an MP at the House of Commons. A member of the shadow cabinet, who had a number of new posts during the six years that she served there, Rebekah helped set up new systems and databases, ran the Westminster office, and got involved in complex multi-agency case work.

From 2006-2010, Rebekah served as an elected councillor in the London borough of Bromley, including being assistant to the portfolio holder for emergency services, assistant to the leader of the council, and vice chair of environment. She was also selected to sit as a board member on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, where she was chair of HR and equalities, and sat on finance, and performance management. She was responsible for drawing up a new safeguarding policy for young people who the brigade worked with on outreach programmes, and redrafted the fast-track recruitment programme to ensure full training needs were met. 

Rebekah was then headhunted to turn around a tired head hunting business. By also undertaking a PhD in work-based learning, she used the academic framework to re-organise the business into executive search for senior directors and board members, coaching them, and facilitating their team meetings to grow and develop themselves and their business. She travelled to Los Angeles, Paris and around the UK to interview businessmen (and it was all men), predominantly in aerospace, defence and motorsport global companies.

After four years, Rebekah felt she wanted to return to something more philanthropic, and the chance came along to build a Studio School in Rye. The government at the time opened up opportunities for free schools, and this one catered for the creative industries. For the first year (2012) she was the project manager for the build, and in the second year she was assistant principal. Here she was responsible for creating a work placement for every child, which was a key part of studio schools, which she achieved, and was asked to speak at the national convention of studio schools in Salford. She found placements in Rye and London and organised a fundraiser (over £22,000 in one night) to help young people achieve these placements.

Rebekah moved on in 2014 and set up her own sports massage business, something she had been trained in several years before. She has run this for nearly a decade now, adding various other healthcare services. She has a wonderfully diverse range of lovely clients whom she sees regularly. She is fascinated by anatomy – as a singer your body is your instrument, so knowing about it is good!

In 2020 she was elected Mayor of Rye, possibly the first to be elected by Zoom! Due to the pandemic restrictions she never had a mayor making and only held one meeting in the town hall chamber. That year she became the 663^rd Speaker of the Confederation of Cinque Ports, an ancient title older than the speaker of the House of Commons, which rotates around the Cinque Ports every seven years. Again this role was limited due to covid. In 2015 Rebekah went through a rigorous selection process to become a magistrate (Justice of the Peace). She very much enjoys the academic rigours of this role- thinking ahead, being objective and unbiased, listening to all the evidence, working with like-minded colleagues, and being a volunteer in the community.

Audio of interview with Rebekah