Hetty Bower

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hetty Bower (née Rimel; 3 October 1905 – 12 November 2013)[1] was a British political activist and suffragette, known for devoting her life to political campaigning since the early 1920s. Before the founding of the UK NHS, she said, "Families were forced to choose between buying medicine for their children or a loaf of bread... We must never ever go back to those days.[2] She marched against welfare cuts, austerity and the closure of Whittington Hospital in North London.

Hetty Bower
Bower in 2011
Born
Esther Rimel[3]

(1905-10-03)3 October 1905
Dalston, London, England
Died12 November 2013(2013-11-12) (aged 108)
Hampstead, London, England
Occupation(s)Political activist and suffragette
Spouse
Reginald Bower
​
​
(m. 1932; died 2001)​

Biography

Bower was born in 1905 in

1926 General Strike and the Battle of Cable Street in 1936.[4]
Her husband was Reginald Bower.

During

Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament, better known as CND, in 1957.[5] In her remaining years, she was invited to several political campaigning events.[6] She enjoyed opera and liked listening to Caruso
.

She was 108 when she died, two months after giving a speech at the 2013

Labour Party Conference campaigning for peace and equal rights. Her last words were "Ban the bomb for ever".[2] Upon her death, tributes were paid by Labour leader Ed Miliband, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett. She had met Miliband and Cooper at the 100th International Women's Day in 2011. The same year, The Guardian named her woman of the year.[4]

Bower lived in a Highgate residential home and died at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Hetty Bower (obituary)". The Independent. 16 September 2013. p. 48.
  2. ^ a b Jones, Ros Wynne (14 November 2013). "Hetty Bower vowed to campaign until her final breath - her last words were 'Ban the bomb for ever'". Daily Mirror.
  3. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/29/hetty-bower. The Guardian. 29 November 2013.
  4. ^ a b c "Tributes flood in as 'tireless campaigner' Hetty Bower dies aged 108". Ham&High. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  5. ^ "Veteran peace campaigner dies aged 108". The Haringey Advertiser. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  6. ^ "Hetty Bower vowed to campaign until her final breath - her last words were 'Ban the bomb for ever'". The Mirror. 14 November 2013. Retrieved 16 November 2013.


Stub icon

This biographical article about a United Kingdom activist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hetty_Bower&oldid=1207811644"