A FORMER beauty queen has died just one week after her rest home closed and she was forced to move.

Primrose Pay, 84, had to find a new place to live when Byron House Rest Home in Vallance Road, Hove, closed last week.

While receiving treatment for an infection, she was moved to the Adelaide Nursing Home in New Church Road. Despite the efforts of doctors, she died eight nights later.

In the last seven months 20 care and nursing homes in Brighton and Hove have shut, leaving dozens of frail residents facing a stressful move to unfamiliar surroundings. Seven more are now earmarked for closure.

Primrose was a glamorous hostess in Brighton clubs who entertained customers during a 30-year career.

Born in Brighton, she was one of eight children. Her father was a publican and she accepted a suggestion from one of his friends that she should become a hostess.

Movie

She also won the Miss Southern Beauty contest and appeared on postcards.

She was given a screen test by Herbert Wilcox, film producer husband of Anna Neagle, but her parents refused to allow her to pursue a movie career.

Her husband, Lionel, ran many clubs and for years they ran the Royal Standard pub in Queen's Road.

Before her death she told the Argus: "I was known as Primrose the hostess and everyone loved me. I saw it as my job to keep people smiling."

In her fifties, she gave it all up to look after her sick mother and eventually retired to a rest home in Hove.

The Argus is now campaigning to save yet another care home from closure. Trustees at the French Convalescent Home in Kemp Town say they cannot guarantee its financial security.

Already, 4,400 people have signed a petition urging a rethink. Brighton and Hove Council has backed our campaign and this week wrote to Culture Secretary Chris Smith asking him to list the mock chateau, opened in 1898.

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