• I WAS saddened to learn of the death in a cycling accident of Margie Dolan, a friend to many like-minded people in this borough. She was the daughter and indefatigable supporter of Hetty Bower, the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing.

As many of your readers will know, Hetty lived to the amazing age of 108 (too old for her own liking), and her lifetime of political activism embraced the General Strike of 1926, the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, and the march against the Iraq War in 2003. She was even youth hostelling with Margie past her 100th birthday.

Typically, the last time I saw Margie we spent a splendid day marching in protest against Donald Trump’s visit in July. We ended the day by paying our respects to Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square.

Margie also brought her mother along, or at least a T-shirt with her face on it; so these three great campaigners, who were of very different generations, but whose lives overlapped, finally met face to face.

No doubt Hetty and Margie would have had greater sympathy with the more militant elements of the suffrage movement, but together the three of them represent over 150 years of campaigning for truth and for justice.

Our world needs women like Hetty and Margie more than ever. It is diminished by their loss.

JOE KERR
Lyme Street, NW1