Margaret Mary Wall, Baroness Wall of New Barnet (14 November 1941–25 January 2017)
Just a few months after her husband Eddie died Margaret Wall sadly passed away earlier this week after a short but brave battle against cancer.
Margaret was part of a group of women who in the late 1990’s played a pivotal part in Labour winning power and holding on to it. They were all from a trade union background who knew the cost of eighteen years of opposition and at one point held the most influential posts in the party; that of chair, treasurer, general secretary and conference arrangements committee chair. Margaret elected from the trade union section to Labour’s National Executive Committee and was chair in 2001/2002.
Apart from helping to turn round the party’s fortunes, these women had one other thing in common and that was that they were all called Margaret! Four of the Margarets were bridesmaids at my civil partnership with Rafael, a celebration that would simply not have been possible without a Labour government. In the Lords debate on the same sex marriage bill she recalled with much pride her part in that ceremony.
Margaret was born in Liverpool in 1941, the daughter of Thomas Mylott and Dorothy Walker. Starting her working life in Le Porte industries Runcorn she became an Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs workplace representative in 1965 in and became lay chair of the National Negotiating Committee in 1969, during this period she undertook studies at Liverpool University and Ruskin College, becoming a trainee full-time ASTMS officer in 1975.
She was appointed a regional officer in ASTMS/MSF after moving to London and subsequently a national official when she played an instrumental part in negotiating the equal pay for speech and language therapists.
Following her retirement from the newly created union Amicus, Margaret was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004 as Baroness Wall of New Barnet and not forgetting her own early experiences led work on promoting training and apprenticeship policies. Latterly after serving as chair of Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust she was appointed in 2014 as chair of Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts.
She leaves a son, Chris, and grandchildren.
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Ray Collins was general secretary of the Labour party between 2008-2011. He tweets at @Lord_Collins
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