Deborah Lavin, 1951-2020

• DEBORAH Lavin, the socialist historian, and our friend, who has died, was a formidable and flamboyant spirit.

Actor, poet, comrade and local activist, she will be remembered by many with great affection.

She was inspired by Somers Town’s history, supported us with generosity and worked towards a Somers Town museum. We hope we can make her dream a reality. She gave great talks, with wit and brio.

Always passionate, always entertaining, hers was a never-conventional take on history.

Her talks on women’s suffrage reminded us that working class men had to struggle as long for the vote; that there were early feminists opposed to birth control; on Eleanor, not Karl Marx… on radicals, feminists, free-thinkers and mavericks. Much like Deborah. We’ll miss her.

SOMERS TOWN HISTORY SPACE
DIANA FOSTER, ESTHER LESLIE, ALAN STEPHENS, ROGER ROBINSON, STEPHEN DENHOLM