My civil partner, Desmond Miller, who has died aged 81, was an anarchist who helped to set up and run Leeds Community Press as a printing and publishing co-operative led by its workers.
Aside from taking on all sorts of ordinary printing work, including posters and leaflets, the press was known for publishing alternative newspapers such as Leeds Other Paper and the Sheffield Anarchist, both of which made a sizeable contribution to street-level political debate in Yorkshire during the 1970s and 80s.
As it was a co-op, everyone did everything, from sweeping the floor and making the tea to writing and getting involved on the printing presses. Des did all of those things over a 13-year period, although he was especially good at creating visual imagery and using it to convey a political message.
Born in Southgate, north London, Des was the son of Doris (nee Smith), who worked in a fishmonger’s, and Ernest Miller, a sailor in the Royal Navy who was killed during the second world war when Des was two. He went to Sir Anthony Deane secondary modern school in Harwich, Essex, and then, from 1957 until 1962, to Colchester School of Art.
After leaving art college he worked for the next eight years in Colchester as a forklift truck driver and then in a dynamite factory, before a short stint as a cub reporter on a local newspaper led him to become a co-founder in 1970 of Leeds Community Press.
In 1983 he moved away from Leeds to settle in Norfolk with his then partner, the geneticist Maggie Sands. From his base there he worked for various printing companies, including the Calverts co-operative and the print shop at the University of East Anglia.
From 1995 onwards Des was unemployed, apart from some ad hoc work as a gardener, and then worsening health led to a heart attack in 2001 which prevented him from working again.
However, he kept himself busy by setting up Rig-a-Jig-Jig, a voluntary organisation that collected memories and photos relating to the traditional music, song and dance of Norfolk. Rig-a-Jig-Jig’s first display day was held at the Norwich Playhouse in 2001, followed by others across the county, either in their own right or as part of village fetes and beer festivals. Des believed that culture belongs to the people from whom it springs.
Often at those events he played the mouth organ as part of a band that was also called Rig-a-Jig-Jig, in which I also featured (on the ukulele). We continued to play in the band until 2016, when age caught up with both of us.
Over the years Des also continued painting and drawing, and sold some of his work through friends and small exhibitions. Like his musicianship, his touch with pencil, pen, brush or print-cutting tool was practised until faultless, without ever becoming stilted or overworked. His subject matter was accessible: musicians in pubs, trees in gardens, boatmen and ferries.
We became civil partners in 2020 and were together for 27 years.
