My friend Barrie Stead, who has died aged 88, was active in Labour politics in London for six decades, taking a great interest in the arts and education.
Barrie stood twice for election to parliament, first for the safe Conservative seat of Kensington South in 1964, and then in 1979 for Fulham, where he lost narrowly as Margaret Thatcher won a general election landslide victory.
He was a Labour councillor in Kensington and Chelsea from 1964 to 1968 and in 1971 was elected to Hammersmith & Fulham council, from 1975 serving for five years as leader. He played a key role in shaping the borough’s cultural life, purchasing the Riverside Studios from the BBC, acquiring Fulham Palace from the Church Commissioners, and saving the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith from demolition by developers.
In 1981 Barrie was elected to the Greater London council for Fulham. He turned his attention to education, serving as chair of the Inner London Education Authority’s finance committee for two years and then chair of the schools committee from 1983 to 1988. These were tumultuous times, but Barrie successfully negotiated the perilous shoals of Labour party divisions, strong trade unions, and a Conservative government determined to shackle – and eventual abolish – the GLC and Ilea. After the abolition of the GLC in 1986, Barrie was again elected to Ilea and continued to serve until its dissolution in 1990.
Under his leadership, Ilea introduced many forward-looking policies, including expanded day care and after-school programmes, increased provision for 16 to 19-year-olds, and fundamental reforms of special education. His attempts to equalise resources between different primary schools in the face of declining rolls, and to ensure a balance of abilities within each comprehensive school, were controversial, but Barrie persevered, reaching a compromise with the teaching unions.
Barrie then became deputy director of education for the London borough of Brent (1990-95), with responsibility for community, adult and youth services.
He was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the son of John Stead, a chemist and industrialist, and Sheila (nee Battey), who later served as the Tory mayor of Bromley, where Barrie spent much of his childhood. He attended Dulwich college preparatory school, then Chislehurst and Sidcup grammar school, before studying chemistry at St John’s College, Oxford.
Barrie then worked as a solicitor for 17 years, covering company, employment and family law, and became a partner in his firm. He was particularly proud of establishing a panel of divorce solicitors who met regularly with marriage guidance councillors at the Tavistock Clinic in London, in order to better to understand the emotional impact of marital breakdown.
After his retirement, Barrie remained active in local politics and was still leafleting a few weeks before his death. He also took up new causes, working to help refugees with a local charity, and attending many company AGMs on behalf of ShareAction to urge the directors to pay all staff the living wage.
Barrie’s wife, Millicent Bowerman, a concert pianist and arts administrator, whom he married in 1972, died in January. His sister, Jennie, survived him by a few weeks.
