My mother, Margaret Williamson, who has died aged 93, was once described as “a role model for all that was good and kind in a human being”. Throughout her long and active life, she supported others, working and campaigning for social justice, equity and peace.
Peggy, as she was known, was born in Stepney, east London, the daughter of Minnie Lamb and her husband, Lewis Peacock, a Yorkshireman; her parents met when her father was stationed with the army in the capital.
The family moved north, and growing up on a hillside in Halifax gave Peggy a deep love of the Pennine landscape. Her family had little money and the foundation of the NHS in 1948 made a difference Peggy never forgot. She gave blood until she was 70, saying: “It was something I could give when I had nothing else to give.”
Unable to take up a grammar school place as her parents could not afford the uniform, which included a straw hat and a skirt for Greek dancing, she went to Halifax modern school, but had to leave at 15 before taking the school certificate. These experiences shaped the woman she became.
She worked as an assistant book-keeper for a joinery firm, and in 1949 married Frank Williamson. As a mother in the 1950s she welcomed children from a care home to our house every weekend and cooked meals for prisoners’ wives at Christmas.
In the 70s, Peggy studied and qualified as a social worker at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University), and worked in the borough of Calderdale. She set up support for adults with disabilities and carers, and later specialised in fostering and adoption.
Peggy loved the adventure of travel, and a well that had been created by Oxfam in an Indian village prompted her to volunteer for the charity after her retirement, working in the Halifax shop for 28 years until the age of 93. She also volunteered with the Square Chapel Arts Centre in Halifax.
Her firm belief in the value of education led to Peggy serving as a school governor for more than three decades. When Frank died in 2005, she became a trustee for the Calderdale Carers organisation.
A committed member of the Labour party who had lived through the second world war, she joined CND, marched for Bread Not Bombs, and protested at Greenham Common, Berkshire. She strongly supported the work of my ArtActivistBarbie campaign, and when asked what it was like to be a feminist activist at 91, replied: “I always have been.”
Peggy was a serious and worthy person, but she was warm, witty, generous and fun to be around; she did not do “old”. She was a longstanding Guardian reader and never left the house without the paper in her bag.
She died in the hospice where she had volunteered, and is survived by her children, Elizabeth, Simon and me, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
