RIP Red Ray

I don't think I've ever seen Trethomas mentioned in the Guardian before today and, as a sad bonus, it came with the name of someone I knew: "Red" Ray Davies. Ray was a member of our local Labour party back in the sixties and, over what were probably my politically formative years, we met at various meetings at the Workman's Hall. They were educational and interesting times. The following obituary by Ray's wife, Wendy, gives the essence of the man. I'm not sure there are that many like him still around and, apart from Jeremy Corbyn, certainly few like him in the upper echelons of the Labour Party now. More's the pity, say I.

 

My husband, “Red” Ray Davies, who has died aged 85, was a Caerphilly county councillor and tireless peace activist whose energy and passion for justice were unabated to the end.

Ray was born during the depression in the Welsh mining village of Llanbradach to George Davies, a collier, who was blacklisted for his union activities, and his wife Winifred (nee Bate). Ray experienced hunger and disease during his childhood, including TB and diphtheria. The fire in his belly was ignited by the loss of his mother, who died in childbirth, for lack of a hospital bed or a blood transfusion.

He went to work as a boy miner in 1943, witnessed death at first hand underground, and organised a strike of boy miners after he saw Bevin boys recruited for the war effort receive hard helmets and boots while he had to wear a soft cap and his uncle’s cast-off shoes. After leaving Llanbradach pit at 18 and completing his national service in 1948 in Trieste, he became a labourer and eventually a refractory engineer at Llanwern steelworks in Newport, before being made redundant in 1988.

Ray got his Labour party card in 1958, and although he was often at loggerheads with the leadership, his loyalty to its founding socialist principles never wavered. He won his first local election in 1965, and went on to serve for more than 50 years as a strong advocate on the county borough council for people in the towns of Bedwas, Trethomas and Machen, living his entire life in the area.

Appointed as a magistrate in 1969 in Llanwern, he was relieved of that role after his arrest during the 1980 steelworkers strike for lying down in front of lorries crossing picket lines at the Alpha Steel plant in Newport. Lord Hailsham, then lord chancellor, asked Ray to undertake that he would not go on future demonstrations. Ray refused and a week later his name was struck off the magistrates list. He was also arrested a number of times during the 1984-85 miners’ strike, and served three prison sentences for refusing to pay the poll tax.
Elsewhere, he threw his heart into campaigning for the Palestinian right to self-determination. In Palestine in 2003 he was shot in the head at Balata refugee camp after being caught in crossfire between the Israeli army and Palestinians while escorting ambulances to hospital. At 79 he was knocked unconscious by police during a march in London called to protest against the bombing of Gaza – and received damages.

For more than 60 years he was opposed to nuclear weapons, and in 1991 became vice chair of CND Cymru. He cut the fence at Aldermaston; he broke into Faslane nuclear submarine base, and, aged 85, led the singing at dawn at the blockade of Burghfield atomic weapons establishment in Berkshire.

Ray’s son Mark predeceased him. He is survived by me and our sons Tad and Carwyn; and by his children David, Stephen and Rachael from his first marriage, to Audrey Thomas, which ended in divorce.

Wendy Lewis
The Guardian 4th August 2015