As a teacher of English and a union representative, my friend and colleague Tim Towers, who has died aged 75, had a lasting impact on the lives of many students and colleagues.
He was politically active on the left, egalitarian and a passionate advocate of social justice, particular in regard to the Middle East.
Born in Bromley, Kent (now in the London borough of Bromley), to Audrey (nee George) and Glen Towers, he had no memory of his father, who died when he was two. His mother, widowed at the age of 23, was left to raise three children under five, and Tim’s memory of their early poverty shaped his politics. Glen had worked briefly in his grandfather’s factory and Audrey went on to make a living as a journalist and a social worker.
Tim’s paternal aunt was Dorothy Thompson, perhaps the most influential historian of Chartism, who was married to her fellow historian and radical writer EP Thompson. The two families became and remained close. Tim remembered as a small boy being taken on Aldermaston marches, carried – literally one day – on the shoulders of the sociologist Stuart Hall.
Tim was educated for a while at Bromley technical high school, where he was a younger contemporary of David Bowie (then Jones). He liked to tell the tale of the fight between Bowie and a friend that led to the severe injury that resulted in Bowie’s distinctively coloured left eye.
He took a BEd degree in English and history at Borough Road College in Southwark, central London. There he met his future wife, Jane Phillips, who went on to become a special needs teacher. They married in 1976.
From 1974 Tim taught at Havant college in Hampshire, and from 1985 at Queen Mary’s college, Basingstoke, where he was head of English for more than 20 years. A master’s degree in the mid-1980s at the University of Sussex allowed him to explore his interest in literary theory. He is remembered fondly by numerous ex-students and colleagues as an inspiring teacher of literature.
He was a devotee of the visual arts, of music in many genres (the American rock band the Grateful Dead was a lasting passion), and a lover of travel, particularly in France and Italy. For a couple of years from 2015, he also combined his impressions of contemporary life with reminiscences of growing up in the 50s in a blog.
Above all, Tim was a devoted family man. He is survived by Jane, their children, Jessica, Amy and Joshua, and their six grandchildren.
