Nearly 150 friends and comrades filled the pews of Golders Green Crematorium on Friday 18 December to celebrate the remarkable life of Nicola Seyd, who died in late November, aged 79. The humanist funeral service featured ‘The Internationale’ as Nicola’s coffin entered the chapel and concluded with the classic Italian radical song so popular with Spain’s anti-Franco forces, ‘Bandera Rossa’.Speakers reflected the many facets of Nicola’s political and social activism ranging from the London Socialist Film Coop and the King’s Cross-Brunswick Neighbourhood Association through to the Holborn & St Pancras Constituency Labour Party and the Morning Star for which she had long organised fundraising book sales in Marchmont Street, WC1.
The current Trades Council secretary, Vino Sangarapillai, and chair, George Binette, were among those attending along with many previous Trades Council officers. Former Camden UNISON secretary David Eggmore and retired members’ secretary Ruth Appleton were also among those mourning Nicola’s passing as well as former Camden Council leaders, Nash Ali, Raj Chada and Phil Turner, Islington councillor and CWU activist, Gary Heather, and CND chairperson, Kate Hudson. Luke Daniels, a Trades Council observer from Caribbean Labour Solidarity, came to the funeral, accompanied by Margaret Busby, Britain’s first black female publisher.
Nicola’s youngest grandchild, Ruby, read an excerpt from Winnie the Pooh, while her grandson paid a moving tribute to his grandmother’s formative influence. There is likely to a memorial event early in 2016. In the meantime, Nicola’s daughter has requested that donation in Nicola’s memory go to the Morning Star.
Farewell to a tireless and profoundly decent activist.
Camden Trades Council 