My friend Denise Tunstall, who has died aged 92, was a teacher, a union rep and a passionate and active socialist. As president of Haringey Teachers’ Association (HTA) in London for an unprecedented three terms, she helped countless teachers in difficulty, representing them in hearings and giving them the benefit of her expertise.
She was a delegate to many National Union of Teachers (NUT) conferences, where she displayed a healthy contempt for the executive, usually sitting at the front with a knitting group, as if in front of the guillotine.
Born in Tottenham, north London, to Grace (nee Bannister), a factory worker and dinner lady, and William Fulker, a roofer, Denise was evacuated during the second world war to her father’s native Wales with her younger brother, David. She completed her education at Tottenham grammar school and earned a university place, but after meeting Neil Hulson, an English lecturer, instead got married.
They set up home in Palmers Green and had a daughter, Margaret, and a son, Jim. Neil died in 1964, and three years later Denise married Julian Tunstall, a solicitor she had met at the Young Communist League, with whom she had a son, Bud.
Denise had trained as a teacher in 1957, and began working at Muswell Hill primary school as well as volunteering with the Woodcraft Folk. She went on to teach at St Aidan’s primary in Haringey, and became more active in the NUT and the HTA.
She was elected HTA vice-president in 1982 and president the following year, after which she became assistant secretary, then deputy secretary, a role she fulfilled for seven years (1985-92). She took on nearly all of the casework for primary schools, and became responsible for the Haringey branch of the Teachers’ Benevolent Fund. She was the union nominee on the panel hearing pupil suspension appeals, and the teacher rep on Haringey education committee.
In 1992 Denise was appointed office manager at the NUT London East office. Following “retirement”, she became chair of governors of Alexandra Park school and was also involved in running Haringey Young Musicians. She was so skilled at chairing meetings that in 1999 and 2002 she was re-elected president of HTA.
An excellent cook who loved entertaining her many friends, Denise was loyal, generous and fun. In her later years, she enjoyed travelling, visiting Scotland and further-flung places such as Peru and the Galapagos islands, Egypt and Norway as well as many of the islands around the UK.
Julian died in 1993 and Bud in 2017. Denise is survived by Margaret and Jim, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
