My friend Helen Grew, who has died aged 94, was a lifelong socialist and active trade unionist. Once she had retired, she became a passionate campaigner for pensioners’ rights.
Helen was an organisational force in the National Pensioners Convention, which began in the late 1970s under the chairmanship of Jack Jones. For her work as a campaigner during an era of severe cutbacks in benefits and entitlements, she received a national award in 2005 from the NPC president, Rodney Bickerstaffe, and a local award from the NPC’s West Midlands branch, of which she was regional secretary for many years.
In her earlier trade union career, for Nalgo/Unison as a local government officer, Helen exhibited a no-nonsense approach, quick to define what was wrong and what needed to be put right, but always supportive of others. Work and trade union colleagues found her helpful, informative, aware of how to support their cases for action and, at the same time hugely personable, sociable and friendly.
She was born Helen Forbes in Dunfermline, and on leaving school worked in a local library for several years. After the second world war she married Howard Grew, whom she had met in Dunfermline, and when he finished military service they moved to his native Birmingham, where he resumed his career as a clerk (and trade union representative) in the treasurer’s department at Birmingham city council. Helen also took a job at the council, where she worked in the housing department, eventually progressing from a clerical grade into a senior administrative role and staying with the authority for 36 years until her retirement in 1982.
Howard, who like Helen was a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, died in 1984. Helen continued with her campaigning, working hard for pensioners and maintaining strong links with trade unionists but also enjoying a lively social life and pursuing her interests in cats, jazz and France. Though she had no children, for many people’s families Helen was an extra “grandparent”, a role she relished.
