Fred Edwards, who died recently, was one of the great social workers. Not only was he an outstanding director, he was also effective in communicating with politicians and the press.

Fred Edwards, who died recently, was one of the great social workers. Not only was he an outstanding director, he was also effective in communicating with politicians and the press. When my wife Annette and I moved to Easterhouse in the mid eighties, Fred welcomed and encouraged us.

Of all his qualities, one stands out for me - his courage.

He started his working life in the merchant navy and was brave and skilful enough to be one of the crew which sailed Mayflower Two across the Atlantic Ocean.

He was director of Strathclyde during the miners strike of 1984-5 and authorised that £191,000 be used to help miners in destitution. The Thatcher government was enraged and he was threatened with having to repay the money and with losing his job. But he had the courage to do what was right.

Even more, his courage came through as he endured cancer. Somehow he continued to encourage others. Despite the pain, he insisted on getting to church until just before he died.

Soon after Fred died in old age, Gayle Williams, just 34, was murdered by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Members of the Taliban claimed, wrongly, that she was converting residents to Christianity. She had gone there to help rehabilitate disabled people into the community.

She knew the risks - already this year 29 aid workers, foreign and Afghanistan, have been murdered in that country. And not only in Afghanistan, hundreds of social and medical staff have volunteered to be located in places of danger.

James Barrie wrote "All goes if courage goes". If people like Gayle did not possess courage, their desire to help those in desperate need could not be fulfilled.

I have just received a visit from a long-standing friend, Dave Wiles. His dad spent years in prison and Dave seemed destined to follow. As a young man he was violent, dealing in drugs, unemployed and on probation. In the pub he enjoyed the company of those who both admired and feared him.

One day, he became a Christian after walking into an old fashioned gospel meeting. Dave returned some money he had stolen, but that was just the easy bit.

The hard part was to resist the persuasion of his friends who wanted him back to his old life-style and then to endure their jeers when he declined.

The mocking and jokes became more intense when they realised his new faith prevented him from using his fists as he once did.

Yet Dave did not want to break with them and continued to go to the pub. He got a job in a shop. His friends asked him to turn a blind eye while they shop-lifted. He refused and some became his enemies.

Some 30 years later, Dave has no regrets but it took moral courage to resist the pressure of his peer group.

He now heads up a youth movement to reach those on the streets - and he still goes to the pub with a mens' group.

There are different kinds of courage: standing up to authority, endangering our lives, resisting the pressure of the crowd.

I excel in none of them. I like to avoid conflict and being criticised. I would like to be like Fred, Gayle and Dave, but I am not one of society's heroes.

Scott of the Antarctic left a dying message: "Had I lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions."

Perhaps one of my tasks is to tell the tale of people like these.

Bob Holman is a retired professor of social policy and a community worker in Easterhouse, Glasgow.