Obituary: Harold Cottis

Members will be saddened to hear of the death at the end of January of Harold Cottis, a stalwart member of long standing.

Harold joined Southend branch in 1941. Before that he had already been a conscientious objector to participating in the war, one of the few pre-war peace campaigners who actually did oppose the war when it came. At that time the declared war aims of Britain and France (America and Russia had not yet joined in) were openly admitted to be the defence of the empire and a dismantling of the autarchic trading practices of the Axis powers.

Harold, who worked for the Co-op, helped keep alive the branch there till the end of the 1960s, and was always active in the Southend area. Until recently he was also a regular attender at Conferences and summer schools. He had a Socialist Standard round in Southend which has now been taken over by his wife, Daphne. We express our sincere sympathies to here and to their daughter.