Obituary: Bill Hegney (1968)

Obituary from the June 1968 issue of the Socialist Standard

We regret to have to report the death of Comrade Bill Hegney at the age of 51. Bill joined the West Ham branch in 1945 through contact with other members. He immediately began looking for work to do in the Party. He set about the job of equipping himself with knowledge attending meetings and lectures all over London and attending classes at Head Office in History and Economics.

He read every piece of Party literature he could lay his hands on as well as many of the more advanced works of Marx and Engels. A few months after becoming a member he took on the job of literature secretary for the West Ham Branch, a job he held for many years and in doing so he was an ever present at the outdoor and indoor meetings run by the Branch, and on very many occasions he took the platform as Chairman. He worked particularly hard during the time of the Party’s Parliamentary campaign in 1950 when we contested the East Ham South Constituency, when he had control of literature sales for the Branch.

Bill Hegney by nature was a quiet person, more a listener than a speaker, but when he did speak he revealed that he had a sound knowledge of the Party’s case and could always explain World events from a Socialist point of view. He was the steady reliable type of member, and his passing is a great loss to the Party and to the Newham Branch in particular.

Members like Bill are not easy to replace.