My mother, Monica Myers, who has died aged 93 after a stroke, had a long career in social work and social policy, including a managerial role at the Greater London council for 20 years until its abolition in 1986.
Born in Durban, South Africa, the eldest child of Edward Clifford-Jones, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Irene (nee Gamley), Monica was a smart, popular and sporty child. She attended St Cyprian’s school, where she became a prefect. After graduating in social science at the University of Cape Town in 1945, she worked in the city housing department there.
In 1951, wanting to leave apartheid-era South Africa, Monica travelled to the UK. She loved London, in spite of the “pea souper” fogs and food rationing, and settled there, becoming a housing officer and then a social worker in St Pancras, now in the borough of Camden. She met Peter Myers in 1952, and they married the following year.
Having come from South Africa, where an unjust and unequal regime was being created, she embraced the fact that the UK was working to improve living conditions and support for struggling families through the creation of the welfare state. She was determined to to play a positive role in the development and implementation of this. In the late 1960s Monica joined the GLC as a social policy section head. She went on to manage teams working on a range of issues including deprivation, poverty and race inequality.
After early retirement in 1986, Monica and Peter travelled extensively, to Russia, Australia and Guatemala, as well as Europe and elsewhere in the UK. Monica enjoyed walking on Hampstead Heath, practising yoga, swimming, and London’s cultural life. She also studied languages and history of art, mainly at the Mary Ward Centre, where she and her friends socialised over lunch.
Monica devoted her time and boundless energy to campaigning for the improvement of her beloved Muswell Hill, where she and Peter lived for 50 years. She was active in the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association.
A strong and independent woman, Monica was a good friend and a loving, supportive mother and wife. She taught me many things including the value of homemade food; the joy of good views; a love of reading and the theatre; and issues surrounding women’s rights. She had a real joy for life, a great sense of humour, and an amazing, welcoming smile.
During the last few years of her life, Monica developed dementia and she and Peter moved to Scotland to be closer to me and her grandchildren. She retained her glass-half-full attitude.
Peter died in 2019. She is survived by her two grandchildren, Lucy and Hannah, and me, and by her sister, Valerie.
