Margaret Simey
Margaret Bayne Todd (4 January 1906 – 27 July 2004) was a political and social campaigner born in
She attended St Paul's Girls' School in London, and was involved, with Elsie J. Oxenham, in the British Camp Fire Girls' Association. Oxenham wrote the sixteen-year-old Simey into her novel Abbey Girls in Town and dedicated it to her; as a teenager, Simey had chosen "Thistle" as her Camp Fire name[2] and later became known to herself and others as a "prickly customer".
She became well known as a left wing campaigner in
Representing the inner-city Granby Ward, she was well aware of the local tensions which led to the Toxteth Riots; over the preceding decade, use of police powers to stop and search had increased, and the police had recently begun to close nightclubs associated with crime. Simey had foreseen that this would cause tension, and had predicted that the closure of one club in particular would lead to a riot. She was correct.[3]
She also served as a magistrate in Liverpool, was awarded an honorary doctorate of the University of Liverpool for her services to the community, and in 2002 was offered the honour of Freeman of the City of Liverpool, but declined.
Bibliography
- Charles Booth. 1960.
- Government by Consent. 1985.
- Democracy Rediscovered. 1988.
- Charity Rediscovered. 1992.
- The Disinherited Society. 1996.
- From Rhetoric to Reality. 2005.
References
- ^ a b The Independent obit, Thursday 29 July 2004.
- ^ 'Camp Fire Stories', article by Rita Lacey in The Abbey Compendium (1997), p. 50.
- ISBN 978-0-691-11563-4.
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