Volunteer Focus: Eileen Daffern
Our regular profile of amazing people involved at BPEC... This time we feature Eileen Daffern - one of the few people eligible to call Len Goldman, 90 (last edition’s subject) a mere whipper snapper...
At BPEC we appreciate that wisdom comes from experience, so it’s little surprise that Eileen, born in 1914, has more than most. 1914! Imagine being able to actually remember ‘The Great Depression’ - never mind everything since! It’s impossible to recount all the amazing events of Eileen’s life here - it would take a book...er, one which Eileen has obligingly just written and now plans to publish on the internet, to be
freely available to all. I for one look forward to reading it.
rom a Yorkshire village childhood to university in 1930’s London, Eileen
and a female friend then did what many young graduates do today, and
set off to backpack around the world. But with social attitudes, international travel and communications being what they were, the trip was deemed so shocking and daring it actually made the newspapers!
Eileen returned to Britain just three weeks before WWII broke out. She
ended up working for the war machine, as so many did, in a munitions factory in Manchester. But she got stuck in and became involved in strengthening the trade unions and fighting for better treatment and conditions. Horrified by the introduction of the Atom bomb, Eileen committed much of her subsequent life to the peace movement, recalling “it was war that brought me to peace.” And who’s to argue?
After a dozen years in Canada raising a family, she returned to Britain in 1960 following the death of her partner. Displaying great taste, she would only agree to return to the UK if she could live in Brighton,
where she has been based ever since. As well as carving out a twenty year teaching career, she also turned her beliefs into actions working within CND, and helped set up the Sussex Alliance for Nuclear
Disarmament, which drew the support of thousands determined
to take action for peace.
Serving on the CND council during the 1980s, Eileen then later
represented CND to the United Nations and visited a raft of eastern
European countries. She attended peace conferences and developed
links and relationships with likeminded groups of people – shortcircuiting
the cold war cultures of fear and mistrust.
When asked what she has learnt from a lifetime of experience and
her tireless work for peace, and for the philosophy that keeps her going, Eileen replies, “I have a belief that the individual can change the world and make a difference. The system we have - competition, exploitation and the rest, leads inevitably to war and we must continually work to change it.”
Captured by Eileen’s steely gaze and challenged by the sharpness of
her arguments and thought, you soon realise that you are in the presence of someone with tremendous spirit, a wealth of knowledge, great stamina and positive energy for the task of making the world a better place. She is one from whom we should all learn while we still have chance.
It’s not by accident that human cultures, for 99% of their existence, have revered their respected tribal elders...and we at BPEC are grateful
to have Eileen, both for her sage advice over the years, as well as
the occasional well-needed kick up the backside. From all of us here -
thank you, Eileen, for the difference you have made.