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| NEWS | OBITUARY - By JONATHAN ALLEN |
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Known to friends as Sheila, she devoted her life to the constituents of her husband, Lord (Jock) Stallard, former leader of Camden Council and Labour MP for St Pancras North. She fiercely upheld his politics, and was described at her funeral at Our Lady of Hal Church in Arlington Road last Tuesday as having a strong sense of justice and a great zeal for the poor. Her son Richard said: “Our house was open 24 hours a day. People would knock on the door at two in the morning and she’d make them a cup of tea and talk over their problems.” Daughter Brenda said her happiest memories were of joining her parents on protest marches. She said: “They’d be out marching every weekend, for miners, the rent strike, poll tax. She’d support anyone out on strike for a good reason. And if she couldn’t make it, she’d be wearing badges in support. Of course, the Labour Party was very different then. Everything she did, she did to make things better for other people.” The fourth child of eight, Lady Stallard grew up in Castle Island, County Kerry, but, like most of her siblings, ended up in London as a teenager. “There weren’t many opportunities in Ireland then,” said her elder sister Eileen. “Still, her accent was as broad the day she died as the day she stepped off the boat.” Once married, all four sisters ended up living within minutes of each other in Camden. Sheila met her future husband at the Buffalo Irish dance hall, now the Electric Ballroom, in Camden High Street. Eileen said: “They just fell in love dancing, and it became a heavenly marriage.” Her husband said: “I am just glad to have known her. She knew about real life and real people.” She and Jock were ennobled in 1983 after being nominated by former Labour Party leader Michael Foot. She would join Jock at the House of Lords most days thereafter. Though she was strict with her children, Richard and Brenda, she doted on her four grandchildren. “She was always the one who sat with us kids in the kitchen playing board games at Christmas,” said granddaughter Kerry Lewis. The grandchildren also helped choose the final song played at her funeral, Sailing. “We always played that to tease her,” said Kerry. “It reminded her of when she was young coming over on the boat from Ireland Diagnosed with emphysema 10 years ago, Lady Stallard died at Ash Court care home on December 13 with her husband and daughter by her bedside. She was buried at Finchley Cemetery. |
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