Opening remarks:
We are here together today to mourn, commemorate, celebrate and remember the life of my father Arthur Stanley Newens, or Stan as he was known to everyone, including his children and grandchildren.
In addition to those here today within the intimacy of this venue, we are live streaming because of the restrictions, and there are a number with us online in the UK and worldwide.
Arthur Stanley Newens was born within the sound of Bow Bells at 31 Quilter Street, Bethnal Green, on 4th February 1930, elder brother to Reg and Celia. His parents were Arthur Ernest Newens and Celia Jenny Newens nee Furssedonn. The family rented the three upstairs rooms in a terrace house tenanted by his maternal grandmother, a widow, Sarah Jane Furssedonn nee Sheen. Much of the extended family lived in other houses in the street and close neighbourhood. Throughout his life Stan was extremely proud of his roots and always considered himself an Eastender.
In summer 1939 Stan moved with his grandmother, parents, and Reg and Celia to North Weald. There he first had the opportunity to garden, and in his book he writes that he remembers the thrill of clearing, digging and sowing the first vegetable plot. Growing vegetables was something Stan did throughout his life and he always took great pride in how much of our food was home-grown.
Of course, during the war growing food was a necessity and Stan never quite saw the need to grow flowers and continued throughout his life to grow large numbers of vegetables even after most of the family had moved out.
Having excelled in his studies at Buckhurst Hill County High School, Stan was persuaded to stay on and take A Levels in History, English, French and Latin, gaining entry to University College London in 1948. By then, to the consternation of many in his community including his own family, for whom voting conservative was integral to working class respectability, he had espoused the cause of international socialism.
Upon graduating in History from UCL, Stan went on to train as a teacher. There followed, instead of 2 years’ National Service in the army during the Korean War, just under four years as a coal miner in Stoke-on-Trent. Here he rose to become an NUM rep and met and married his first wife Ann.
Stan returned to North Weald with Ann and began teaching at Edith Cavell School in Hackney in 1956. Two daughters, I Sarah, and Caroline, arrived before tragedy struck in 1962 and Ann died.
Maud Joshua, together with her baby daughter Karen, came to look after Caroline and me for three years, until Stan met his second wife, Sandra, through Chingford Labour Party. Stan and Sandra married in 1966; two more daughters, Helen and Margaret, arrived, followed by a son, Thomas.
Stan was elected as MP for Epping in 1964. When defeated in the 1970 election he returned to teaching but was re-elected as MP for Harlow (previously part of the Epping constituency) from 1974 -1983. He therefore represented Harlow in Parliament for a total of fifteen years. This time he did not return to teaching and was appointed as the Organising Secretary of the Harlow Council for Voluntary Service. In 1984 he was elected as MEP for Central London winning two further elections and then in 1999, he retired from full time politics.
In his retirement Stan devoted his time to his books and his writing, and a range of political, historical and civic organisations.
The contributions we are going to hear today are from those who worked with him in politics, knew his work in Harlow, and his historical work, and we are also going to hear from other members of our family.
Closing remarks:
I would just like to add a few comments to what we have heard today.
Stan was always a Co-operator and it was always his belief that the Co-operative movement could provide the most appropriate form of enterprise for some sectors of the economy. After he lost his seat in 1970, he continued his interest in the Co-operative movement which culminated in his election as President of the London Co-operative Society. He was also extremely active in the Co-operative Party and from 1974 always stood as a Labour–Co-operative candidate.
I would like to point out that it is of course Co-op Funeral care who are the funeral directors today and we want to thank them for their absolutely sterling service and support during the last few weeks.
We have chosen white flowers for Stan today because his politics and beliefs were driven above all by his desire that the human race could live together in peace.
Stan believed history had lessons to teach us and should not be simply a description of the leaders and politicians, but was about extraordinary, ordinary people throughout history shaping our world. Hence his support for thirty years of Labour Heritage, the East London History Society, the East of London Family History Society and the Essex Family History Society and his great interest in genealogy and family history.
Stan was both a principled conviction politician and someone who had a wide range of interests.
He and Sandra still exchanged Christmas cards with a family in Chingford who, in the 1960s, Stan had helped with a housing problem during the period he was MP for the old Epping constituency of which Chingford was a part.
During the period he was MEP for Central London, he worked with the Armenian Community, with progressive Kurdish groups, and others, when they raised with him issues around social justice in areas of the world where they or their families had originated.
And in Harlow, where he lived for over 50 years and where our family grew up, he has formed lasting friendships, working with numerous individuals and groups rooted in the local and wider Essex community.
Stan was not infrequently contacted by former pupils from his days as a history teacher in Hackney.
He kept up with his own old school friends and with fellow students from UCL.
He was our family’s historian, too, and amassed a vast family history archive – much of it gleaned from his own genealogical research. Indeed, some of us can remember being propelled around certain local record offices in far flung parts of the country to assist with such research.
His passing leaves a vacuum of encyclopaedic knowledge that was all in his mind. I will miss being able to phone him when I wanted to know something, reliably knowing that he would be able to remember in extraordinary detail. I never forget him chatting to one of his former pupils (she is now in her 70s) about that essay she wrote back in 1959, and his recollection of the grade he gave and comments he made.
The family are all thankful to those of you who have joined us here today either in person or online. We all have many memories to cherish of an extraordinary man who lived a long and busy life.
Please do add your memories to Stan’s Tribute page which we have set up. Once we are out of lockdown restrictions, we plan to organise a memorial meeting, where we hope that all of us will be able to meet up in person to share our memories and thoughts.
We shall now be moving onto the place of burial. All of you here are welcome to join us if you wish but I would suggest that those of you who are not so mobile drive up to the spot.
For those of you online I thank you for joining us.