My husband, Noel Lynch, who has died of cancer aged 74, was a Green party politician and an auctioneer who ran “London’s most unusual charity shop”.
Born in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, Noel was the son of farmers, Bill and Nancy Lynch (nee Tierney). He attended Charleville Christian Brothers’ secondary school, then, knowing the agricultural life was not for him, he took on a variety of jobs, including petrol pump attendant and office worker in a meat factory, before turning to auctioneering and antique dealing.
At various times Noel had antique shops in Dublin, in Athy, Co Kildare, and Bruff, Co Limerick. He began to take an interest in politics when he was in his early 20s and stood as an independent candidate in the 1969 Irish general election. He was not elected, but revived his political ambitions when in 1986 he went to London, where he became an active member of the Green party in Tottenham and then East Finchley.
Noel rose through the Green party ranks to take a seat in the London assembly in 2003. He sat on several committees including the Metropolitan Police Authority, the culture, sport and tourism committee, and chaired the standards committee.
He became involved in trying to preserve green spaces, improve conditions for small local shops, and increase the provision of public toilets. The achievement he was most proud of was being part of the successful campaign, in 2003, to save the Cricklewood Homeless Centre when it was threatened with closure.
On leaving the assembly in 2004, Noel continued his involvement in Green politics by becoming the party’s London coordinator, spending most evenings travelling all over London to attend meetings of local branches.
Away from politics, Noel worked as a freelance auctioneer and ran the Green Room, a shop supporting sustainable causes, in Finchley. Described in Time Out as “London’s most unusual charity shop”, it sold everything from phrenology heads to sharks’ teeth.
Noel and I met through a mutual friend in the antiques business. We became partners in 2012 and married in 2018.
In his spare time Noel was a voracious reader of factual books and he loved running general knowledge quizzes for charity and, latterly, to entertain friends and family online during lockdown. He made his mark wherever he went with his kindness, compassion and quiet intelligence.
He is survived by me, his daughter, Michelle, from a previous marriage that ended in divorce, by his granddaughter, Tejah, and brothers, Liam, Tim and Patrick.
