We are saddened to learn of the death of Eileen Daffern.

Eileen Daffern, born on New Years Day 1914,  spent over fifty years actively campaigning for peace and nuclear disarmament.   Her political ideas developed gradually as she experienced life working in the "colonies" in the 1930s.  Already radicalised by the second world war, it was the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 that caused her to become a nuclear pacifist.

Eileen came and settled in Brighton in 1960, and for many years was active in various local and national peace groups.  Throughout the early and mid-'80s as Secretary of the Sussex Alliance For Nuclear Disarmament (SAND) she worked hard to open up a dialogue with peace activists and official Peace Committees in the Soviet East.   She was one of the first members of the Brighton Peace Centre,  joining in 1982 and continuing her membership throughout her life.  She held BPEC membership no. 0009.

Even well into her 90's, Eileen remained active with various groups including the Sussex Peace Alliance.   George Farebrother, current secretary of the SPA notes:  "Eileen has been a beacon to all of us who care about peace in Sussex and beyond its borders.  She worked with humanity, integrity and constancy to the end.  For myself she has been a guiding light ever since my first tentative steps into activism.  We shall miss her. "

The Morning Star has recently published an obituary that you may find here.