REA, Mrs Charles MBE (Felicity Marion Peel nee CORBIN) 1938-2026
Richard R
She was d of Lt-Col Eustace Peel CORBIN 1903-84 (s of Eustace Rhodes St Clair CORBIN 1858-1909 and Linda Augusta Jane PEEL 1867-1952 who was gt gd of Sir Robert PEEL 1 Bt 1750-1830 who was f of the British Prime Minister Sir Robert PEEL 2 Bt 1788-1850) by his 23 April 1930 m (St Mary, Oatlands, Surrey) to Phyllis Marion 1906-2002 d of Alfred Joseph BRABNER 1872-1918 by his 6 Sep 1904 m (St Paul, Harringay) to Constance Marian HICKMAN 1878-1966. She m 1962 Charles Patrick REA 1923-1992 and had a son and a dau.
Obit in the Times of 19 June 2026
E X T R A C T
Flick Rea obituary: Popular Liberal Democrat
Councillor known for her efficiency and for lighting up council proceedings using her Rada training, dies aged 88
…Felicity Marion Peel Corbin was born in Taunton, Somerset, in 1938, the only child of Lieutenant Colonel Eustace Peel Corbin, a descendant of Sir Robert Peel [1 Bt f of the British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel 2 Bt] and headmaster of Huish’s Grammar School, and his wife Phyllis (née Brabner).
Her first public performance was as a cherub in a nativity play at the age of five and she continued to appear on the local amateur stage while at Weirfield Girls’ School, Taunton. During a year at the Hartley-Hodder School of Drama in Bristol she was coached in dancing, fencing and elocution. She went on to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, with Glenda Jackson, who was later her MP. She also knew Trevor Phillips, Frank Dobson and Ken Livingstone. “I’ve yet to meet Jeffrey Archer and I’m happy to keep it that way,” she told The Independent. As Felicity Peel she was one of the last debutantes to be presented at Court, an honour she preferred to forget…
… While working backstage on Frank Vosper’s thriller Love From a Stranger she met Charles Rea, a thespian 15 years her senior, and they were married in 1962. He was seen in The Ipcress File (1965) starring Michael Caine and the 1970s police drama Hunters Walk. Charles died in 1992 and she is survived by their son Robert, a journalist with Times Radio, and their daughter Kate, a retired TV stage manager.
Robert told the Camden New Journal that one of his cherished memories of his mother was how she insisted on getting into character when playing a board game such as Cluedo. “She put on a fine Mrs Peacock, even though at the time it would have my sister and I rolling our eyes in exasperation,” he added. Although Rea had given up her stage career to be a wife and mother, she never renounced her dramatic inclinations. She did a wonderfully irreverent but realistic impersonation of Margaret Thatcher….
Flick Rea MBE, Lib Dem councillor and community activist, was born on May 21, 1938. She died after a long illness on May 25, 2026, aged 88
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/flick-rea-obituary-popular-liberal-democrat-2622wp5m0