Obituary: Bert Mayes (2003)

Obituary from the July 2003 issue of the Socialist Standard

We regret to have to report the death in June of our comrade Bert Mayes at the age of 86. He was not in fact our oldest member but he was the one who had been a member the longest, having joined the old Battersea branch in 1934 while a teenager. He came from a told pro-working clan background with two of his uncles being members. As a socialist he refused to be conscripted to fight fellow workers in the Second World War. After the War he transferred to Ealing branch and took part in that branch's intense canvassing for the Socialist Standard in the 1950s and spoke from time to time on the outdoor platform as well as being a Conference delegate. He was an active member of the TGWU and in fact tended to think that socialists should take more interest in the short-term problems confronting workers under capitalism. For instance, he took the view, when the Tories brought in the notorious 1957 Rent Act that drastically reduced rent control that it was not enough to argue that in the long run this would not make much difference since if rents went up wages would follow. Right up to the end he used to call into Head Office in Clapham to pay his subscription to the Socialist Standard.

The Party was represented at his funeral in Morden and our condolences go out to his wife and family.