Margaret Simey

Jul 9 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

ONE of the 20th century’s greatest social campaigners, Margaret Simey will forever be remembered as the champion of the Granby people and hero to the under-privileged.

The no-nonsense, yet gentle talking, adopted daughter of Liverpool was in the limelight during the Toxteth Riots. She had numerous robust conversations with the then chief constable Ken Oxford as well as Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine.

As a member of Merseyside County Council, Mrs Simey – entitled to use the word Lady, though she shunned the title – was chairwoman of Merseyside Police Committee. She was elected as a councillor in Liverpool in 1946 and represented the people of Granby for 40 years.

It was in 1986, the year Merseyside County Council was abolished by Margaret Thatcher, that Cllr Simey decided to retire from politics, though the lifelong love affair with her beloved Liverpool continued right up to her death on July 27, 2004, aged 98.

She was 18 when she arrived in Liverpool from Scotland in 1924. In 1928, she became the first female graduate in social science from Liverpool University.

She then joined forces with another great campaigner, Eleanor Rathbone, to fight to improve living conditions in Liverpool's slums. Later she came under the wing of MP Bessie Braddock .

Her people celebrated her life by boarding the Royal Daffodil and sailing along the river to watch her ashes being scattered off the coast of Waterloo from the deck of the ferry.

It was in Waterloo where Mrs Simey's father originally settled when he moved there from Glasgow, paving the way for his daughter's remarkable life in Liverpool.

A Swiss Guard, dressed in black, had stood at the gangway making sure people had removed ties before boarding as Mrs Simey's ashes were carried on to the ferry.

After her death a glowing tribute was paid by her adversary, Michael Heseltine.

Mrs Simey, told the minister “Liverpool needed a bathroom in every house, not a garden centre”, in reference to his plans for the International Garden Festival.

Lord Heseltine said: “She was a lady of outspoken courage who knew what she believed in and stood firm for it. I didn't often agree with her, but that did not diminish my respect for her.”

A year before her death Mrs Simey was offered the Freedom of Liverpool. She politely declined.