Our volunteer, Valerie Mainstone has died. I find it hard to say, even more difficult to believe. She was so very alive in every thing she did. In the days following he death I’ve
walked around the city and almost everywhere I have gone I’ve remembered Valerie there.
Valerie was a community activist of extraordinary commitment and belonged to a huge number of local groups. In Brighton & Hove it’s hard to meet anyone who did not know her.
She was well known as a welfare rights adviser, a student organiser, a peace campaigner and a health activist. In my mind’s eye I can see her now: teaching English in the Jubilee Library; setting the world to rights with friends in the Italian cafe; leafleting with peace campaigners on the Old Steine; demonstrating for the NHS in front of the County Hospital; running a stall in Brunswick Square; attending a meeting at the Unemployed Centre; jumping up to ask awkward questions in the Friends Centre; or pitching up at the Regency Town House for a meeting of the Women’s History Group with purple hair and a huge mischievous grin. I remember her as I saw her last, on a
sunny September Saturday, helping us petition for the Mary Clarke Statue in the Pavilion Gardens. Nothing could stop her, until cancer did.
She was a founder member of the Brighton & Hove Women’s History Group and one of its most avid campaigners for suffragette plaques.
She was there at the Brighton Centre on 18th November 2018 when we launched the campaign to get a statue for Mary Clarke. She was one of the Appeal’s most committed supporters.
I knew her best as a campaigner for women’s rights and I suspect this is what mattered most to her. She was passionate about the need to commemorate women and celebrate their achievements. Like Mary Clarke, Valerie was a ‘late developer’, attending university as a mature student with huge success. Like her great friend, the local historian Val Brown, she was horrified by the loss of women’s history. That was why she campaigned so hard for blue plaques for women, especially for local suffragettes.
I remember once complaining to her that so many
obituaries are written for men and so few by and for women. She agreed and we joked that we should set up a group so we could all write our own.
We never did, but there’s no need for dear Valerie. We will not forget her.
Jean Calder (19/10/2025)
Please also see an article about Valerie written with her input on 1st May 2024 for the Argus by Andy Winter, who is one of our Trustees.