Gordon Nash
Gordon Nash
Communist Life
Gordon Nash was active in Merseyside CND. After the second world war, he served in the police force in Palestine and, returning home to Wallasey, became a Communist Party of Great Britain member in 1948, playing a full role in all its activities, including standing as a parliamentary candidate, until shortly before he died.
He married Marjorie who died in 1984, aged just 60, after they had been together for 30 years, raising three children.
He joined the Merchant Navy, returning to shore when his mother became ill, before working as a rigger for Octel in Ellesmere Port where he was active in the AEU engineering union, now part of Unite, and remained for the rest of his working life.
“My Dad roped me into everything he did,” recalls daughter Liz Howard. “Even when he was 90, he took me on a march for peace. I always knew him as a trade unionist, a Communist, who always fought for his beliefs, a better world for our kids. It was always about children.
“I remember writing to him in jail when he was convicted of cutting the fence at Capenhurst in an antinuclear protest and then again for refusing to pay the poll tax.
“He was very passionate about what he believed,” Liz says proudly. That included not only the Communist Party of Britain and Morning Star but also the Anti-Apartheid Movement, his union Unite, Merseyside pensioners group, Cuba Solidarity Campaign and Merseyside CND.
“The last march he went on was in February this year when he was determined to take part in the Cancel Trident event.
“We insisted on taking a wheelchair in case he got tired or cold, but true to Gordon’s determination he walked the whole way and proud to do it. What made him more proud was that his daughter Liz walked beside him.”
“After Wallasey CND was set up in the early ’80s, Gordon was there at every demo and march from Faslane to Barrow, Sellafield, Aldermaston and of course our local nuclear site Capenhurst, where he was part of the Snowball campaign and was arrested,” says Barbara Hardcastle.
Merseyside Cuba Solidarity Group secretary Penny Anderson remembers meeting Gordon for the first time “on the 1962 Aldermaston march when he sold me my first ever copy of the Daily Worker. I think this became a source of pride to us both.
“I subsequently became a regular reader of the Worker and later the Morning Star and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. As members of the same branch we sold the Morning Star together.
“He was the most supportive of comrades, unfailingly pleasant and always good-humoured.”
Fellow Cuba Solidarity member Julie Sabin, who used to pick Gordon up for CSC meetings, points to his down-to-earth organisational approach.
Firefighter Mark Rowe started driving Gordon from his Wallasey home to the Communist Party of Britain meeting place in Liverpool when he became a little unstable on his feet.
“I probably shouldn’t say this but I sometimes looked forward to the trips over and back more than I did the meetings because he was such a wonderful colourful character,” he admits.
A local radio lunchtime chat show also benefited from Gordon’s input, Mark recalls. “Gordon would be on there regularly. In the workplace we would be shouting at the radio and then Gordon would come on, arguing our point. He was such a wonderfully calm speaker.
“He was devoted to the Morning Star. He always sold it. Gordon was a one-man sales unit for the paper.”
Morning Star management committee chair Carolyn Jones spotlights Gordon selling five copies of the paper at his Unite Community branch meetings. But she also raises his keen sense of humour, noting that, “on his 90th birthday, after we had put up a plaque in the CASA (the club set up by Liverpool dockers) to celebrate the life of Sam Watts, Gordon announced that he wanted one too — but he wanted it while he was still alive so he could enjoy it!
“That was done and then he contributed an extra donation to update the words when he was no longer with us — something we will do with sorrow and pride. “Gordon was a wise old man with political drive and determination. Our branch was all the better for having him as a member.”[1]
Farewelling veteran communist
Morning Star supporters gathered for an inspirational social evening at Liverpool’s Casa club May 2015 in memory of veteran communist and campaigner Sam Watts, who died last year aged 89.
Mr Watts featured in the Ken Loach film The Spirit of ’45, and his interview from the film was shown on Saturday.
Speakers at the social evening included Gordon Nash, 90, a veteran comrade of Mr Watts, Carolyn Jones, director of the Liverpool-based Institute of Employment Rights, and Kevan Nelson of Merseyside Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group. Band the Peacemakers gave a lively and well-received performance.[2]