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Friends and family, including Lisa’s aunt, Anna Newton, front centre, and cousin Neil Pontecorvo, back right |
Mourners say final farewell to Lisa, fighter for the underdog
We Shall Overcome sung at funeral to campaigner ‘who would never let go’
HUNDREDS of mourners sang the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome at the funeral of Lisa Pontecorvo on Monday in a fitting tribute to one of Islington’s best-loved campaigners.
Relatives and friends, including many from Italy and Switzerland, paid their respects at a service at Islington and St Pancras Crematorium in East Finchley conducted by Lisa’s friend and near-neighbour, the Rev Michael Learmouth, Dean of Islington.
Lisa, from Thornhill Square, Barnsbury, died when she was struck by a lorry as she walked with her bike across Holloway Road, close to Highbury Corner, two weeks ago. She was 64.
At Monday’s service, her aunt, Anna Newton, described the young Lisa as very bright but “seriously argumentative” – a trait that would become increasingly useful in her later battles with authority figures.
Her friend from 1960s Oxford University days, Ruth Kirk-Wilson, said that even tutors were a little apprehensive of the feisty and plain-speaking Lisa. “She was reading out a brilliant essay she’d written on the Second World War when a tutor dared to suggest adding some more facts,” Ms Kirk-Wilson said. “Lisa snapped back: ‘Stop confusing me with facts’.”
Lisa always fought “heroically” for the underdog but also had a kind and considerate nature, Ms Kirk-Wilson added.
Labour councillor Paul Convery said Lisa’s greatest achievement was her dogged campaign to turn a former derelict area into what is now the award-winning Edward Square gardens in King’s Cross.
She was also a prime mover in ensuring that developers of Regents Quarter and Kings Place, at King’s Cross, created schemes that were sensitive and in keeping with the environment.
“You knew when you had been ‘Pontecorvoed,” Cllr Convery joked. “Once she launched a campaign she never let go. As a politician you needed Lisa on your side – or rather you needed to be on Lisa’s side.”
A socialist, Lisa specified that donations from mourners be made to various charities, including the Quaker Peace Studies Trust at Bradford University in West Yorkshire.
A memorial event is being planned for Edward Square, probably next month. |
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