Obituary: George Powe (1926 - 2013), by Jill Wesby

[This obituary was written by my aunt Jill, about her husband George.  It was submitted to The Guardian but it was shortened for publication.  Published version.]

GEORGE POWE

My husband, Oswald George Powe, always known as George, was born in Kingston Jamaica in 1926. He had a happy childhood in a family with high aspirations for its children. His father was a Chinese conjuror, from Canton, China, who emigrated to Jamaica  and became a  merchant, along with his brothers. George’s parents made sure that he had a good education and he was part way through college, studying to become an electrical engineer when he volunteered, in 1944, to join the Royal Air Force. Trained in radar, he spent much of the time stationed in Devon and Cornwall. He went back to Jamaica a couple of years after the war ended, and was demobbed, but decided to returned to England within a few months. He stayed here for the rest of his life.

In the 40’s he was very aware that  there was widespread racial discrimination in the forces and in the civilian world. He saw horrific treatment of black people in London, was on the receiving end of much of  it, and was soon fighting to attempt to turn this situation around. He joined the Communist Party, which at that time was probably the most active group promoting the rights of disadvantaged and exploited people.  At some point in the 40’s he wrote a pamphlet  called “Don’t Blame the Blacks”.

He moved to Birmingham and later to Long Eaton, Derbyshire. He eventually left the Communist Party and joined the Labour Party, retaining his Labour Party membership for the rest of his life. In the early 60’s he was elected as a Labour Party  Councillor in  Long Eaton, and was, I believe, the first black man to achieve such a position in this country. He moved to Nottingham in 1971 and after a few years was elected, again as a Labour Councillor, on Nottinghamshire County Council.

I first met him just over 50 years ago, shortly after Cuba Crisis Week. We were pushing leaflets about the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament  through letterboxes on opposite sides of a road on a snowy evening. I remember thinking that he must have been feeling very cold, as I assumed he had just arrived in this country after a long journey in a boat.

Little did I know that he had been over here for 20 years! 

In the 60’s  black people were still being treated very badly in public places such as pubs, clubs, schools, shops and in courts of law.   He and I started a campaign against a Nottingham pub where black people were not welcomed in the same room as whites. A large number of people, black and white came along to  try to be served and then stay there as long as they could, drinking very slowly indeed, in order to make it a bad night for the pub’s profits. I ordered two half pints of bitter, and was about to be served when the landlady realised that one of them was for George. She said “ I’ll serve an Indian or a Pakistani but not one of those black…………..”  She snatched the beer back and we were unable to get a drink. It began to turn a bit nasty, and at one point a glass of beer was emptied over the bar, but we all left peacefully. The pub was closed down a few weeks later.

Thankfully over the years such direct action became less necessary, and more Black and Asian people started to  become active in local and international politics,  many of them joining the Labour Party, with some involved in smaller and more hard-line groups.

George always spent part of his spare time in strictly political campaigns. He devoted just as much time in assisting individual people to gain the treatment they were entitled to expect from the police, the education system, and in their places of work. Although the majority of these people were from Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, India, Pakistan or Africa, he was also instrumental in assisting many white people to gain their rights.

He was the prime founder member of the Afro-Caribbean Centre  (ACNA), formed in 1971 by a number of  black organisations, eventually securing permanent premises in Hungerhill Road, Nottingham, opening as a community centre and social club in 1978. He acted as Company Secretary until  few years ago, and was an active Director until he died. The ACNA Centre stands as part of his legacy.

When British Governments passed various Immigration Acts, it was clear that many people would need help in dealing with all the problems they caused. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people have been helped by him to resist  this new type of discrimination. Whenever a Jamaican had a relative who was refused a visa to come to Britain, and came to George for help, just as long as he knew they were telling him  the truth about their circumstances, he would advise them about any grounds on which they could appeal.  I cannot remember a time when any of these cases which went to appeal with his help were turned down.

I am proud to have been married to a man who was so generous with his time, and who fought hard for the rights of all communities. He had both Jamaican and  British citizenship, and could move freely and successfully in both societies. I went to Jamaica with him four times over the past thirty years. To see the respect he was afforded when in Jamaica was amazing. So many people in Spanish Town, Kingston and beyond knew him, and those who didn’t would never guess from the way he walked and talked, spoke and listened, that during his life he had so spent much more time in England than he did  in Jamaica. Wherever he went people treated him in line with one of his favourite expressions – respect and dignity.  

He was not a religious man, but he had strong moral compass.  He never forgot his roots. It was a privilege to be part of his life.

Jill Westby  September 24, 2013 

He died on September 9, 2013. He is survived by his second wife, Jill, whom he married in 1982;

4 children, 3 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren from his first marriage to Barbara Florence Poole in 1949; and 4 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren from a previous relationship with Lilian Elisabeth Willis during the time he was stationed in Devon.