My mum, Eileen Jarvis, who has died aged 92, devoted her life to fighting for the rights of women and children, first with the women’s liberation movement and as a volunteer for Women’s Aid refuges, and then as a social worker in three London boroughs.
Her passion for social work stemmed from the poverty she had witnessed growing up in north Wales, as well as the tragic high-profile case of Maria Colwell, a seven-year-old killed by her stepfather in 1973. While raising her own daughters, Eileen studied for O- and A-levels at evening classes, supported by her husband, Harry. After qualifying as a social worker in the mid-70s, she worked in Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Wandsworth.
Born in Wrexham, she was the youngest of the four children, and the only daughter, of Irish migrants: Jack Whelehan, a jockey and stable lad, who worked for the trainers Noel Murless and Jeremy Tree; and Julianne (nee Daly), known as Sheila. Eileen was eight when the second world war broke out and Sheila began working in a munitions factory; she would hide under the kitchen table every night, listening for the sound of the bus that meant her mum was home safe.
The family moved frequently, relocating to Yorkshire then Beckhampton in Wiltshire, and Eileen left her convent school with few qualifications. After a brief early marriage, she became a secretary in London, where she met her second husband, Harry Jarvis, a shipping fleet personnel officer. They were married in 1967 in a simple ceremony at Wandsworth town hall and had two daughters, Catherine and me.
Motherhood fuelled Eileen’s involvement with politics and women’s rights, and as well as campaigning with the women’s lib movement and volunteering for Women’s Aid, she was a member of the Labour party and got to know the MPs Tom Cox and Joan Lestor well.
In her 50s, to the immense pride of her family, she graduated from the Open University, and after retiring as a senior social worker in the 1990s to help care for her grandchildren, she became a psychotherapist and was a volunteer counsellor at Wandsworth prison. She loved poetry, walking, singing and travel.
When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease seven years ago, she was determined that it would not define her. In 2017 she appeared on the Channel 4 programme 24 Hours in A&E. “It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, but what it has to be, is a challenge,” she said. “I don’t want dementia to interfere, so I won’t let it.”
Harry died in 1988. She is survived by Catherine and me, and her four grandchildren, Joshua, Oliver, Harriet and Benedict.
