My mother-in-law, Claire Warren, who has died aged 89, was a Labour councillor in Bristol for 20 years, and in 1994 was made lord mayor of the city. She was also an ambassador for Bristol, a school governor and a trustee of the Bristol Old Vic. She was made an honorary alderman of the city in 2006.
Born in the city, she was one of the seven children of Ted White, a plasterer, and his wife, Mabel (nee Flood), a factory worker. After attending St Mary on the Quay Catholic school she joined the Labour League of Youth and became a nursery nurse while doing day release classes.
Claire then trained as a state registered nurse at Charing Cross hospital, London, working on surgical wards, from 1948 to 1951, just as the NHS was being born. There she was known as “Red Claire” and met Peter Warren, a psychiatrist, who shared her passion for political debate. They married in 1951, just before Peter was called up for national service in Korea. Afterwards they settled in her home city, bringing up their five children.
Peter died of cancer in 1970, and afterwards Claire worked at Grove Road day hospital, then at a private homeopathic facility until returning to the NHS as a district nurse in charge of infection control at Bristol’s Central Health Clinic.
In the 1980s she gained a degree in literature, politics, history and sociology from the Open University, and was an active supporter of the Labour party, CND and the Greenham Common women’s movement, as well as Amnesty International. Her home was an open house for family and political gatherings, with participants fortified by trolleys of sandwiches, pots of tea and barrels of home brew.
She retired from nursing in 1986 and with 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren had plenty to keep her busy, although she also taught herself how to upholster furniture.
She is survived by her children, Sue, Fiona, Julian, Lucy and Zoe, brothers Dave, Barry and Paul, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
