My partner, Dick Muskett, who has died aged 82, was an organiser, socialist and entrepreneur who played a key role in setting up the Workers Beer Company, which runs event and festival bars to raise funds for progressive causes.
Dick was a man with strong principles, energy and charm who used his experiences as a soldier, firefighter, trade unionist, event organiser and local government officer to make a difference. A firm believer in collective action, he never took the limelight for himself.
Born in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, Dick was the eldest child of Joanie Davidson, a shopworker. He never knew who his father was and Muskett was a surname chosen for him by his mother. His grandmother, Esmé, was a key influence in his early years, giving him a lifelong interest in books and reading. Increasingly he took responsibility for looking after his three younger siblings.
Dick left school at 14 to work as a butcher’s boy and then a farm worker. He volunteered for the army in 1962, signing up with the Green Jackets rifle brigade. He saw active service at 19 in Borneo, an experience that left him with great respect for his army comrades.
In 1968 he moved to Coventry to become a firefighter, and it was there that he first became involved in trade unionism. He left that job in 1972 to go to Ruskin College, Oxford, on a TUC scholarship to study labour history and industrial relations. He then returned to the Midlands and worked on the assembly line in a car factory.
After being made redundant two years later he essayed a change in direction, holding posts as a community worker at South Wales Anti Poverty Action (1976-77), the London borough of Wandsworth (1977-78), Wandsworth Housing Aid Project (1978-80) and the West End Resource Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne (1980-82).
He then joined the Greater London council as project development officer for its industry and employment committee (1982-86), coordinating the GLC’s Jobs Year in 1985 and organising festivals and events.
It was as an activist on Battersea and Wandsworth trade union council that he became a founding director of the Workers Beer Company, set up in 1986 as a social enterprise and still owned by Battersea and Wandsworth trade union council. In addition he was twice elected as a Labour councillor in Wandsworth.
On the abolition of the GLC, Dick moved to Camden as head of policy, focusing on making public services responsive to local people. He and I first worked together in the early 80s, to set up London Health Emergency, an umbrella organisation for campaigns against cuts in local NHS services.
Due to my job, in 1993 we moved to Bristol, where Dick retired from work to complete an MSc in public policy at Bristol University. He also worked with TUC South West to organise the anti-racist Respect festivals in Bristol from 1998 to 2000 and took a lead in transforming the fading Tolpuddle Martyrs’ festival in Dorset into a popular annual weekend of music, political debate and entertainment.
My job took us back to London in 2000 and Dick continued to campaign and volunteer for the rest of his life. A great host and a talented cook, he enjoyed art, music, theatre and travel.
Dick was married and divorced twice, to Irene (nee Salmon) and then to Helen (nee McCluskie). He is survived by three daughters, Tora from his first marriage, and Jo and Jenni from his second, his grandsons, Toby and Felix, and his sisters, Julie and Debbie.
