Our mother, Joan Hill, who has died aged 97, was a lifelong socialist. She raised funds for the International Brigades fighting General Franco’s fascists in the Spanish civil war, and was a founder member of CND, taking part in many of its rallies.
Daughter of Annie (nee Long) and Thomas Press, Joan was born in Portsmouth. She remembered the general strike of 1926, which took place when she was eight, and its effect on her family and neighbours. Her political beliefs were influenced, too, by her father, an active member of the woodworkers’ union, the ASW.
As a teenager, against her parents’ wishes, Joan went to protest against an Oswald Mosley rally in the Empire theatre, Portsmouth. There she met Fred Hill, who was beaten up by the Blackshirts that day. Joan and Fred also collected funds for the Milk for Spain campaign to send much-needed food aid to Spanish children during the civil war.
They married during the second world war in January 1941, days after the blitz destroyed large areas of Portsmouth. Joan worked in Portsmouth dockyard, which was under constant attack from German bombers. While there, she organised, and won, a fight for equal pay for female and male telephone operators.
Joan opposed the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and helped establish the Portsmouth branch of CND in the 1950s. We remember her taking us to see off the Portsmouth contingent travelling to join the first Aldermaston march in April 1958. She remained a CND member for the rest of her life.
One of the jobs given to us as children was to collect the Manchester Guardian from the newsagent at lunchtime – Joan always read the paper. During the 60s and 70s, she worked as an infant school teacher and as a playgroup leader for Save the Children.
She loved traditional jazz and listened to live bands at pubs and clubs in and around Portsmouth. A longtime Labour party member, apart from a break during the Iraq war, Joan received a certificate of merit for outstanding voluntary service to the party. In 1991, she was a founder member of the Portsmouth Pensioners’ Association. She remained an active committee member and campaigner with the organisation until a few years ago, as well as attending the Pensioners’ Parliament.
Fred died in 1993. Joan is survived by us.
