TRADES Union veteran Len Nash has died aged 79 after a long battle with cancer.
Len spent three years in India as a serviceman during the war. On his return he became a supervisory foreman at the King’s Cross Goods Yard.
Whilst working there he received a cheque for five pounds five shillings from the Divisional Manager of British Railways for saving a man’s life in January 1965. Len pulled a colleague off the tracks to stop him being crushed by a train carriage.
He became a union representative for the Union of Construction and Allied Trades and Technicians (Ucatt). He then worked at the Town Hall in Judd Street, as a uniformed attendant “gold-braid” until 1988.
Len was a proud member of the Communist Party and was heavily involved in helping the pit-workers during the miners’ strikes of 1984/5.
He helped to arrange meetings and put pressure on the unions to keep up their support during the strikes. His wife jean said his proudest moment came in 1985 when he was made an honory member of the National Union of Miners in Hatfield on January 1, 1985. Arthur Scargill signed his membership card. She said: “It was something he treasured right until the end.”
He met his wife Jean, a Yorkshire woman, during the miners’ strike. She was the chairwoman of the Miners Wives’ Support Group.
They married in 1987 and moved back to her hometown Pontefract in 1988. At his funeral in Pontefract last week he was remembered as a jocular personality by friends and a stalwart of union principles who had absolute faith in humanity. At the non-religious service, they played Tina Turner’s Simply the Best, music hall standard Maybe it’s Because I’m a Londoner, and Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You.
His long time friend Francis Khoo gave a moving eulogy and sang the Socialist anthem ‘Joe Hill’ at the send off.
He told the congregation that Len and his friends knew each other as members of the ‘Camden colliery.’
“It was a private joke,” he said. “Once a woman saw a logo on Len’s Camden tie. She said ‘which colliery are you from?’ He said the Camden Colliery. It was very funny as obviously there’s no such thing. The joke just stuck.”

Tom Foot