Teacher, Labour activist and artist
Born: July 13, 1944;
Died: July 1, 2016
ANNE Watson, who has died aged 71, was a teacher and artist who became a Labour party campaigner and supporter in Edinburgh.
Born in Blaydon on Tyne in the north-east of England, she left school at 16 and initially worked as a clerical officer with Northern Gas Board before becoming involved in adult education both as a learner and a teacher.
In 1965 she married Elsdon, a chemist, and for a while concentrated on raising her two children Jennie and Elsdon Mark. Only once the children were at school did she start developing her own career, initially benefiting from a TOPS (Training Opportunities Scheme) grant which funded her studies in shorthand, typing and English which in turn enabled her to get a teaching job in Blackfyne Comprehensive in Consett, County Durham.
Thereafter, in 1979 , she joined Hebburn Technical College in South Tyneside teaching secretarial and administration skills and later English as a second language. She was universally popular with both students and colleagues. Particularly notable was the way she reached out to women from Asian backgrounds who had little or no contact with British people.
She retired from teaching in 1994 when she was 50, partly because of her health - she had suffered for many years from the rare progressive spinal disease syringeomyelia - but also to accompany Elsdon, now that he had retired, on worldwide travels.
In retirement she was also able to develop her first love - art. She gained an A level in the subject at Newcastle College, then a 2:1 Honours Degree in Fine Art from Sunderland University. She was active in drawing and painting and making colourful printed scarves.
In 2006 she moved with Elsdon to Edinburgh to be close to her daughter Jennie and with the capital city's proliferation of galleries she was in her element. She was also attracted to and well able to appreciate the impressive architecture of the Episcopalian Christ Church in Morningside. As well as regularly attending services she took the opportunity to exercise her considerable intellect by engaging in discussions in the Sunday lecture series and as a lover of literature took the book group particularly seriously, coming to meetings well prepared with notes.
She had deep seated commitments to the principles of socialism, equality and fraternity and since 1970 had been an active member of the Labour Party, supporting her husband when he stood as a borough councillor.
In Edinburgh she attended local party meetings, social and fundraising events and in 2010 undertook telephone canvassing and helping to organise literature drops in support of Ian Murray MP for Edinburgh South and most recently for Daniel Johnson now MSP for the Edinburgh Southern constituency - all this in spite of being wheelchair bound and moving towards the terminal stages of her illness.
Driven by values rather than personalities, she was never a Jeremy Corbyn supporter. Indeed as a fully paid-up member of the Labour Party and a feminist she voted in the last leadership contest for Yvette Cooper. No-one could ever accuse her of being a Corbynite because she was never, as her husband pointed out, "ite anything."
Anne Watson is survived by her husband Elsdon, her daughter Jennie and son Elsdon Mark and grandchildren Victoria, Rebecca, Joel, Polly and Daisy.
KAY SMITH
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