My father, Bernard Thurlow, who has died aged 83, was a trainer, a faculty counsellor and the founding father of a charity for asylum seekers. He had an unstoppable ardour for constructive change, rooted within the Catholicism that he was introduced up with and liked; for him, this translated right into a hands-on dedication to social justice and lifelong socialism. He had the uncommon potential to get on warmly with everyone he met, even whereas affected by dementia.
Bernard labored as a trainer in Manchester (1960-69), together with at Our Woman’s Roman Catholic highschool in Royton. He was then a faculty counsellor at Stanfield technical highschool in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, and a part of a central group of counsellors who labored throughout colleges in Dudley, West Midlands (1970-85). From 1992 to 2003, he helped to seek out lodging for ex-offenders inside the probation service in north Staffordshire, in addition to being a volunteer and a member of the nationwide govt and social justice group for the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP).
He was born and grew up in Selby, North Yorkshire, the third of the 4 youngsters of Might (nee Chard), a housewife, and Ernest Thurlow, an engine driver who drove the Mallard and the Flying Scotsman. Household life was overseen by a statue of the Sacred Coronary heart within the kitchen nook, which had been transported dwelling in a wheelbarrow by Bernard and his brother, Jude, from a decommissioned church on their mom’s instruction.
After Drax grammar faculty, close to Selby, Bernard went to St Mary’s Educating School in Twickenham. He accomplished a counselling diploma at Keele College in 1969 and later a level at Manchester Polytechnic.
At a folks music membership in Manchester, he met Jane Howarth, who was additionally a trainer; they married in 1968. When Jane died in 2002, Bernard retired to his beloved Yorkshire to be near his grandchildren. There, he did arguably a very powerful work of his life, volunteering with destitute refugees and asylum seekers in Leeds from 2004 to 2020. He based St Monica’s Housing in 2011, a charity for feminine asylum seekers, and undertook casework supporting particular person asylum claimants.
An all-round sports activities particular person, Bernard had a specific ardour for biking, starting in 1991 when he began taking youngsters in residential care mountain biking, culminating in a coast-to-coast journey with them. In 2009 he cycled from London to Paris, overtaking folks a lot youthful than him, elevating cash for the SVP.
Bernard is survived by his youngsters, Debs, Richard and me, his grandchildren, Annwen, Gethin, Euan, Murray and Mollie, and his brother, Jude. His sisters, Rita and Mary, predeceased him.
