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Roy Shaw |
PM’s tribute to ‘remarkable’ politician
PM’s tribute to ‘remarkable’ politician‘His contribution had such a positive impact on the lives of people. He was modest, had practical common sense.’– Gordon Brown’s warm tribute to Roy Shaw, who died on January 4
A TRIBUTE by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Alderman Roy Shaw was read at his funeral on Friday.
The Prime Minister praised the dedication to public service and loyalty to his community and political beliefs shown by Mr Shaw, 82, who died on January 4. He was Camden’s longest serving councillor.
“Roy had a remarkable career,” Mr Brown’s message said. “His contribution had such a positive impact on the lives of people. He was modest, had practical common sense.”
The tribute was read by Labour Party National Executive Committee chairwoman Dr Dianne Hayter, who lives in Kentish Town and was one of Mr Shaw’s closest friends. Mr Brown was unable to join the 300 mourners at the funeral service in Golders Green as he was on an official trip to China.
Dr Hayter spoke of Mr Shaw’s 50 years’ service to the Labour Party, as secretary of Hampstead branch and then as a ward councillor – a tenure, she pointed out, that meant he was involved for more than half the party’s life.
Tributes were also paid by Lord Clarke and Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell, a former Camden councillor, at a service that included music from Wagner, Mussorgsky and Madame Butterfly.
Ms Jowell said: “He turned Camden into the country’s leading progressive council, and knew what we could do to transform the lives of local people.”
Former council leader Dame Jane Roberts described how Mr Shaw had asked for a special atheist dog tag when serving in the army but the code came back ANG for Anglican rather than AGN for agnostic.
If he had been killed in battle, Dame Jane said, “he would have been buried a Christian, something he was very annoyed about”.
Others who spoke included another ex-council leader, Raj Chada, and former councillor John Dickie, while friends Lucian Hudson and Kentish Town City Farm’s John Langman added their tributes.
Mr Langman told how Mr Shaw would hold court over a beer and the crossword in the Sir Robert Peel pub, in Queen’s Crescent. He added: “People would approach him, out would come the diary and he’d undertake some political triage. He was a good man. We will miss him.”
Former Ham and High editor and New Journal feature writer Gerald Isaaman recalled late- night phone calls to gossip about local government politics, while Lt Col Simon Gregory, former commanding officer of the University of London training corps, told how he and Mr Shaw had travelled to Germany to visit the grave of a comrade killed in action while fighting alongside him in World War II.
Friends and colleagues gathered at a wake at the Freemasons Arms in Hampstead after the funeral, passing on their condolences to his sister Pam and her family. |
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