Kath Westacott
The daughter of a Welsh miner and a suffragette mother, she became active in the student movement when at
During the Cold War, she was a leading participant in the peace movement. She is pictured, centre piece, under the banner of this photograph, probably from 1949, of an anti-NATO demonstration in Nottingham.
A teacher, she was involved in the fight for comprehensive education in
She also played an important role in the tenant’s movement in the
Kath also pioneered the celebration of International Women’s Day in the
Kath was a member of the
Her husband was Fred Westacott (see separate entry),
She died in November 1975; in tribute to her memory, arising from her particular interest in socialist theory and knowledge of the history of the British working class movement, the annual Kath Westacott memorial lecturers were begun. Surprisingly well attended events over some decade and a half, the lectures attracted some noted speakers; some of these were: James Klugmann, Gordon McLennan, Bill Paynter, Michael O’Riordan, Ben Rubner, and Fred Westacott.
One tragedy of Kath’s early death was that her plan to write a biography of the Kane family (see separate entries for Jock and Mick, and their sister Bridget (Kane) Jones) was thwarted. The papers of Mick Kane were held by her husband, Fred, until his own death, when they were vested with the Marx Memorial Library.
Sources include information from Joe Clark; photo Nottingham university
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