Our mother, Jane Atkinson, who has died of leukaemia aged 66, was a visionary mental health, housing and social justice campaigner. Whatever she did, whether regenerating derelict housing, starting an anti-street violence charity, rejuvenating a mental health trust, working as a local councillor, sitting on prison boards or studying at Cambridge as a mature student, Jane’s mission was: do more.
Born in Beckenham, south London, to Molly and William Atkinson, a neurosurgeon, she had a convent and state school education, going on to study classics at Bristol University, where she met our father, Will Hutton. They married in 1978. On graduating she joined Notting Hill Housing Trust, where she found her first vocation – safe and affordable inner-city housing.
In 1986 she went on to co-found First Premise, an architecture company dedicated to regenerating some of London’s most rundown areas, creating community projects and live/work studios. Her experiences led her to become a passionate advocate of good mental health, with an emphasis on the role housing can play.
Inspired by her time on the board of Pentonville prison in the early 2000s, she successfully applied to read criminology at Cambridge University as a mature student, later becoming a non-executive director of Penrose Housing Association, which supports ex-offenders and people with mental illness.
With this under her belt, along with her work as a Labour councillor for Haringey, she was appointed the chair of the then North East London Mental Health Trust in 2004, and was pivotal in turning it from a failing organisation into the now thriving and solvent North East London NHS Foundation Trust, with a £330m turnover. In tribute, the trust’s next building is due to be named after her.
Inspired partly by one daughter joining the Metropolitan Police, and partly by a fatal stabbing on a bus while passengers looked on helplessly, in 2007 she founded the charity Dfuse , to equip ordinary citizens with the skills to defuse public aggression. Just under 10 years later, it has trained many thousands, working with companies and charities alike.
Jane’s work ethic was matched by her boundless sense of fun and enthusiasm for cycling, skiing and walking her way around the world – with a glass or two of New Zealand Sauvignon along the way.
Jane was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in December 2013. Her funeral, described in the Guardian by Jackie Ashley, was packed to the rafters with friends and family from all aspects of her life.
We, our brother Andrew, and Will survive her.
