My father, Tony Austin, who has died aged 89, was a social worker in London, Birmingham and Wales. He also had a spell as a lecturer before returning to practical social work and then moving into management.
After gaining a diploma in applied social sciences at the London School of Economics, he began as a trainee social worker at Hammersmith hospital in London in 1964 before becoming a medical social worker at the Birmingham Accident hospital (1965-68) and then senior childcare officer at Vale of Glamorgan council (1968-72).
He went on to become a social work lecturer at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff (1972-74) before joining Mid Glamorgan county council in 1974 as a principal social services officer, taking a similar position at Hertfordshire county council in 1978.
Returning to Cardiff in 1983, he spent the next 11 years until his retirement back in his role with Mid Glamorgan, also serving briefly as acting assistant director, responsible for learning disabilities services and services for older people.
Tony was born in South Acton, west London, to Nin, a laundry worker, and her husband, George, a labourer. After his Navy-conscripted father was killed during the second world war, he spent a year as an evacuee in Lancashire. He left school at 14 to work in a series of jobs, including as a bookie’s runner, in a laundry with his mother, and as an office boy on Fleet Street, where he made tea for the journalist Harry Carpenter.
National service in the RAF was a life changer for him. He met people from all walks of life, built on his early love of reading, played a lot of sport and finished his service as a leading aircraftsman. He then got a job at the British Council, taking students from Africa and Asia on tours of London, including to meet his rather perplexed mother and stepfather, and to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club.
Tony also ran “Introduction to Britain” courses and helped students to develop administration skills that prepared them for government work back in their home countries, which had often been made newly independent from Britain.
After taking evening classes at the Marylebone Literary Institute in London in 1960, he went to Fircroft College, an adult education institute in Birmingham, where he gained three A-levels and met Rita De, whom he married in 1962. He then gained a diploma in social administration at Swansea University, his LSE diploma, and embarked on his social work career.
Tony’s working life gave him a huge amount of satisfaction, and in general he was wary of senior management positions, preferring to stay closer to the day-to-day management of social work. Outside work he served as a magistrate, specialising in family court matters and refusing to adjudicate on non-payment of poll tax cases in the early 90s.
After retiring in 1994 he spent the next 15 years studying at Cardiff University, gaining a degree in English literature, a master’s in cultural politics and, at the age of 76, a PhD. Otherwise he read widely, enjoyed film and music, watched as much sport as possible and was a keen swimmer into his mid-80s.
Rita died in 2023. He is survived by his children, Paul and me, a grandson, Tomos, and his sister, Joan.
