Eric Cohen
Eric Cohen was born in 1912 to Jewish parents who came to Liverpool from Russia at the beginning of the century. After school he trained and became a chartered accountant but joined the Communist Party in the 1930s previously having been secretary of the Liverpool YCL. He campaigned for the Republican movement in Spain and the unemployed in the 1930s.
It was through his political work that he met his future wife Eve at a YCL social. They married in 1940 and had three children Norma, Maurice and Philip.
A campaigner for the opening of the 2nd Front during WW2, especially while in the RAF, where he worked as an electrician on Halifax and Lancaster bombers.
He stood in local council elections in Liverpool during the 1950s and campaigned for the CND, Anti Apartheid Movement and many other causes during the 1960s and 70s.
The family moved to London in 1960 and Eric spent 20 years as Chief Accountant at the Daily Worker, later the Morning Star, and was an active member of the Muswell Hill branch of the CP. Having moved to Brighton in 1988 where Eve died soon afterwards he continued to immerse himself in politics and chess. He later became an honorary member of the Brighton and Hove Chess Club.
After the dissolution of the Communist Party, Eric joined the Labour Party and right up to his death in 2002 was out canvassing in Hove for the local Labour Party candidate, Ivor Caplan. He worked tirelessly for the Unity Theatre Trust, his union MSF retired members association, the local tenants association, Democratic Left and Save the Susan May campaign.
Eric put his enormous willpower and energy down to cold showers and open windows throughout his youth.
He had read that Lenin had prepared for the Russian revolution in this way. If it was good enough for Lenin, it was good enough for him.
Maurice Cohen
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