Published: 13 November, 2013
by BERNARD MILLER

NINETY-NINE years of the most active campaigning came to an end yesterday (Tuesday) evening when 108-year-old peace and social justice campaigner Hetty Bower died, 19 days after an unexpected stroke.

In 1914, aged nine, she waved goodbye to the first soldiers leaving to fight in what was to become World War I.

Weeks later, shocked by the sight of the first returning amputees, she resolved to work, educate and campaign for peace. That resolve never weakened.

Neither, until the day of her death, did her efforts. A humanist, seventh of ten children from an orthodox Jewish background, she attributed much of her radicalism to her progressive, rabbinically-trained father, beloved eldest suffragette sister and husband Reg with whom she enjoyed nearly seventy years of blissfully happy marriage.

Too often the description “worked tirelessly” is platitude or exaggeration.

In Hetty’s case it was fact.

Whether speaking out publicly against war, sneaking out with her sister to feed hungry miners in the middle of the night in the 1926 miners’ lock out, fundraising for progressive causes, looking after refugees in World War II, campaigning against weapons and wars of all kinds for nearly 100 years, marching for peace and equality and against the destruction of the welfare state of which she was so proud – earlier this year she marched most of the two miles from Highbury Corner to the Whittington Hospital for the second time in three years to prevent closures – Hetty never wavered.

Until this year she participated in every major peace march often complaining that others walked too slowly. Last October she walked three miles to raise money for Oxfam’s campaign for Palestinian children.

Only after the death of her close friend, fellow peace-campaigner Rose Hacker at 101, did Hetty’s remarkable public speaking ability emerge. Initially she had to be coaxed but it soon became clear she was a skilful, compelling speaker. Her motto: “I may not be able to see or hear but as long as my legs will carry me, I can work for peace”.

Last month she rallied participants at the Labour Party conference, describing the horrors of life before the welfare state, inspiring them to work to prevent that kind of society returning, before telling Ed Milliband that Labour needs to return to its founding principles of social justice.

The stroke occurred as she was leaving home to speak to a local primary school about peace and describe primary school life one hundred years ago. Less than six hours before her death her powerful voice reverberated through ward 6 of the Royal Free Hospital as she sang the refrain of an old Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament song, “Ban the bomb, for ever more”. Her voice fallen silent.  Her message and example must continue to reverberate.

• Hetty Bower, 1905-2013, leaves behind two campaigning daughters, Celia and Margie, “adopted son”, Bernard, two grandsons, Iain and Richard, two daughters-in-law, Dorothy and Liz and two young great grandsons, Sidney and George, plus many admirers and supporters.