My mother, Margaret Cross, known as Magda, who has died aged 99, was a committed teacher, peace campaigner and Quaker, who for decades devoted much of her energy to the pursuit of social justice and disarmament.
Magda trained as a primary school teacher at Whitelands College (now part of the University of Roehampton), taking up her first teaching post, at Tudor Road school in Southall, west London, in 1944. Wartime conditions meant balancing the lure of dances at the Hammersmith Palais against the need to honour the night-time fire-watch rota at the school.
Soon after celebrating VE Day, Magda and her friend Grace secured teaching jobs at Spryfield school in Halifax, Canada. At a local dance hall there she met my Canadian father, Donald Cross. They were married in 1950, both accepting appointments to teach English at secondary modern schools in the West Midlands; my mother at Prestwood Road school in Wolverhampton.
Magda’s political outlook began to move leftwards from her parents’ conservatism. As the abhorrent nature of Thatcherism became clear to her, my mother bristled at the thought that (as a greengrocer’s daughter herself) others might suggest an affinity between her and this other Margaret. In response, she adopted the moniker Magda thereafter. She had been born in Shropshire to Olive (nee Green) and Stephen Jones, who, as well as running their greengrocery business, instilled in their three children the importance of hard work and civic virtue.
In the early 80s, as Conservative funding cuts hit school budgets, Magda volunteered to take early retirement. Donald did likewise and, still in their 50s, they began decades of active non-working life. Committed Quakers, they became the first resident friends at the Charney Manor Quaker retreat in Oxfordshire, later moving to Dundee and then Brighton to remain close to my sister, Jenny, and her family.
As the cold war intensified, Magda grew frustrated at the unwillingness of politicians east and west to grasp the opportunities for de-escalation. She became a passionate advocate for citizen-based peace-making. Through the Mothers for Peace group (later Women to Women for Peace), Magda sought out direct contacts with like-minded individuals in other countries, becoming a fluent Russian speaker in the process.
Bypassing official state bodies, she joined numerous peace-making visits to both Russia and Ukraine, staying with ordinary families whom she would then invite to visit the UK. These endeavours later encompassed exchanges with peace-seeking activists in the US, Cuba, Israel, Palestine and elsewhere.
In her mid-70s, Magda began studying with the Open University, addressing the qualification gap that had capped her teaching career at deputy head at Montgomery school, Exeter. Her delight at graduating with a BA Honours in the social sciences was enhanced when, in 2017, her Whitelands certification was also upgraded to degree level by Roehampton University.
As her health declined, Magda continued her activism online, showing impressive IT skills for a ninetysomething. She displayed characteristic resilience when Donald died in 2005, and then Jenny in 2012.
Magda is survived by two children, Jonathan and me, and her granddaughter, Jessica.
