My friend Tony Farsky, who has died aged 98, ended up becoming a headteacher despite having failed his 11-plus and missing out on the chance of higher education like so many working-class children of his generation.
A Communist party member and activist from the 1930s onwards, he began teaching in the 50s. His first post was at a primary school in Streatham, south London, then at Langbourne primary school, West Dulwich, before moving on to Friars primary school, and then Webber Street school, both near Blackfriars Road, where he became deputy head.
In 1973 he was finally appointed head of Gordonbrock primary school, Lewisham, after applying unsuccessfully for a number of jobs – he felt he had been blacklisted as a union activist.
Tony was chair of Southwark National Union of Teachers on two occasions during the 80s. He was a member of the Communist party’s London Education Advisory Committee and a contributor to its education journal, Education for Today and Tomorrow.
Born in Dulwich, south London, to Lilian (nee Jones), a domestic servant and cleaner, and Anthony Farsky, a lift installer, Tony went to a local secondary modern school, having failed his 11-plus. He joined the Communist party as a youngster after being taken to a meeting where he heard the renowned orator Harry Pollitt speak.
When the second world war broke out he was called up and given basic training on radio and equipment maintenance in the RAF. Each weekend he would go into Liverpool to fetch a suitcase of communist literature to sell and distribute at his base.
After being demobbed Tony did a teacher training course in Worcester, specialising in history and art.
He met his wife, Florence (nee Denham), in Staithes, Yorkshire, at a Communist party educational week, and they married in 1946. They were both very active in the British Peace Committee, a forerunner of CND, and campaigned for the Stockholm peace appeal, which helped to bring about the Helsinki accords on security and co-operation in Europe in 1975 – a big breakthrough in the cold war.
After the World Disarmament Campaign was founded in 1979, Tony became its treasurer. Florence, known as Flo, worked as a union secretary and for London Trades Council. She and Tony organised large concerts in support of the British Peace Committee and the Communist party, as well as art shows in their large home in Sydenham, south-east London. Tony was a jazz enthusiast and pianist and put his talents to good use for fundraising events.
Tony retired from teaching in 1983, after 36 years. Despite ailing health and eventual immobility, he remained active in the pensioners’ movement and various other campaigning initiatives.
He was a well-known figure in Southwark, speaking every Sunday at open-air meetings held by the Communist party in East Lane.
Flo died in 1998.
