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Tributes to Ray Adamson |
‘Ray was a kind gentleman, totally dedicated to helping other people’
Family, friends and colleagues pay a fond farewell to former mayor and his ‘great legacy’
IT was an absolute screamer of a goal. A shot so fast, so out of the blue, that none of the professional sports photographers managed to snap it. Only one person in the stadium watching Bristol Rovers that day got the action shot that all the newspapers wanted. He was a blind man on his day off – and his name was Ray Adamson.
It is a story that goes some way to summing up the inimitable Mr Adamson, the former Mayor of Camden who died last week.
Despite multiple disabilities, the 81-year-old Gospel Oak resident achieved remarkable feats at whatever he turned his hand to, whether as an industrial photographer for British Aerospace (his work in the 1960s at the time of the Bristol Rovers goal), a Salvation Army Auxiliary Captain, Labour councillor, or as a Ham Radio enthusiast, speaking to people all over the world from his flat in Waxham.
Friends, family and colleagues paid a fond farewell to “a kind gentleman totally dedicated to helping others” at the St Marylebone Crematorium in East Finchley on Monday. His daughter Zoe Adamson said her father had had a tough start in life, as a foster child, but that he had always “seen his circumstances as opportunities for improvement, not as barriers to be passively accepted”.
Former leader of the council Dame Jane Roberts added: “Ray did brilliantly to come through the political ranks and be elected by his colleagues as Mayor, casting aside the early disadvantage of having been in care as a Barnardo’s boy and of course with a profound visual disability – and he made his views rightly and trenchantly known when he encountered prejudice.”
The current Camden Mayor Omar Faruque Ansari paid tribute to the “great legacy” and “perfect community work” Mr Adamson had left in Camden, such as the Plot 10 playgroup in Somers Town.
Never afraid to speak out about injustices, he once caused a boycott of his favourite cafe on Malden Road when they wouldn’t let in his guide dog, Katie.
“In the end, the owner caved in – he didn’t expect Ray to be so vocal. He had a great deal of stamina,” said his friend of 35 years, Helmet Lusser.
Friends also remembered another side to Mr Adamson: an avid
Arsenal fan who listened to every match on the radio, and an amateur radio enthusiast who tried to set up a radio antenna on the top of Waxham.
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Taylor, of the Salvation Army, remembered him as “a good man who was called to service”. |
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