CAMPAIGNER Angela Sinclair was declared a “hero for peace” after the 84-year-old lay on the pavement for an hour to protest against the international arms trade.
Angela, from Highbury Hill, “played dead” outside the office of a major international defence company in The Mall as pedestrians walked around her.
The demo was staged last Wednesday by Finsbury Park-based Campaign Against the Arms Trade, whose members described her action as “magnificent”. They include Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.
At a time when many people of her age might consider taking it easy, Angela, feisty secretary of Islington Pensioners Forum, is an unstoppable force.
Tomorrow (Saturday) she will be marching with the Stop the War Coalition to Hyde Park in a rally calling for the government to bring the British troops home from Iraq by Christmas
She said: “I’m totally committed to peace. So, although a little uncomfortable, lying down for an hour on the pavement was no real hardship.
“I had my coat to lie on and there were supporters to make sure no one tripped over me. I hope we got our message across.”
A pacifist, during World War II she worked for the Quaker-inspired Friends Ambulance Unit, where she met her husband, Dr Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit, later a World Health Organisation adviser, who died last year.
She has three children – one working with refugees in Chad, one a businessman and one a teacher – and six grandchildren.
She is on at least a dozen committees, including Islington Age Concern, Alzheimer’s Society, the National Pensions Convention, London Older People’s Group and the patients and public committee at Whittington Hospital in Archway. She has a £5 share in British Aerospace which allows her to ask difficult questions about its record at the company’s annual meeting.
A medical and psychiatric social worker, she worked at a number of London hospitals before being compulsorily retired 20 years ago.
She walks everywhere, or uses her pensioner’s free pass for the buses or Tube, and has no fear about being out after dark.
She added: “Keeping busy and involved keeps me young and fit.”
The demonstration called by Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain and CND assembles at noon tomorrow (Saturday) in Parliament Square for a march to Hyde Park, where a rally will be staged.