Fw: Sad death of Roy Wells, early Gypsy Council militant

[dicegeorge at hotmail dot com]

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From: "Jenny Smith" <Jenny.M.Smith at dsl.pipex.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 8:07 AM
To: "dicegeorge at hotmail dot com" <dicegeorge at hotmail.com>
Subject: Fw: Sad death of Roy Wells, early Gypsy Council militant

> > Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 7:57 PM
> Subject: Sad death of Roy Wells, early Gypsy Council militant
>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> It is with great regret I inform you of the death of Roy Wells last
> Monday.
>
> Roy Wells led the fight for a Gypsy Caravan Site in Wandsworth in
> the late 1960s, running caravan schools there, joining the Gypsy
> Council and the National Gypsy Education Council. For a while he
> kept an illegal site open in the grounds of the disused Battersea Power
> Station He was one of the stalwarts who kept the National Gypsy
> Education Council on a radical path in the 1970s, and led the
> demonstration of the Association of Gypsy Organisations in 1972
> outside the Houses of Parliament after which eleven of us, including
> Grattan Puxon, spent the night in the cells.  He pioneered the legal
> defence that Councils could not evist Travellers from their own land
> unless they had made provision under the 1968 Caravan Sites Act.
> He worked briefly as the first Traveller EWO for the old Inner
> London Education Authority, until their bureaucracy became too
> much for his free spirit. For half-a-dozen years he was the effective
> leader of the radical wing of the Traveller movement keeping it alive
> when it was threatened by by co-option and compromise, and
> perhaps at its weakest when disillusion set in after the implementation
> of the 1968 Caravan Sites Act after 1970.
>
> In later years, bruised by the struggle, he worked mainly locally in
> West London, suffering from diabetes, and losing his sight, but
> remaining indomitable in spirit to the end. May he rest in peace and his
> spirit continue to inspire us.
>
> The funeral is at 2pm at Putney Vale Cemetry on Wednesday 4th
> February. If you want to send a card, his widow, Angela, is at 54
> Chatto Road, Battersea, London SW11 6LL
>
> Thomas Acton
>
>
> Date sent:      Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:04:16 +0000 (GMT)
> From:           angela wells <buffie20032003 at yahoo.co.uk>
> Send reply to:  buffie20032003 at yahoo.co.uk
> To:             Thomas Acton <T.A.Acton at gre.ac.uk>
> Subject:        Urgent attention
>
> Hi Thomas I have to inform you of the sad news that Roy died on
> Monday evening. Could you please inform Donald Kenrick and any
> one else from the association who was a close friend of Roy's. I hope
> that you will both be able to attend the funeral. Also there will be a
> reception at the corner pin pub afterwards. Â I look forward to
> hearing from you  Angela Wells
>
>
>
>