Margaret Morris obituary

My grandmother, Margaret Morris, who has died aged 93, was a historian, university lecturer, letter-writer to the Guardian and a socialist campaigner.

For 47 years, Margaret was married to the educationist Max Morris, a former Communist party executive member and president of the NUT (1973-74). Max and Margaret met in Hampstead, north London, through a shared interest in leftwing causes, and they became close friends when Margaret stood as the Labour candidate for Hornsey council in 1959; they married in 1961. They were well known in political circles and their parties were widely celebrated.

Margaret’s campaigning targeted housing problems and access to higher education. Later, having joined the Communist party in the early 1960s, she represented the UK abroad with the Women’s International Democratic Foundation and accompanied Max on foreign delegations.

Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, Margaret was the only child of Edith, a secretary, and Reginald Howard, a civil servant. She won a scholarship to George Dixon grammar school, where her early socialist views were inspired by her history teacher. She studied history at Birmingham University, attaining a first; then she took up a postgraduate scholarship at Oxford University.

Two formative events shaped her life: being evacuated to Shropshire aged nine during the second world war and receiving extensive hospital treatment for tuberculosis while at university. Her experiences were drawn upon by her friend Linda Grant, the novelist, in The Dark Circle (2016), which depicted life in a TB sanatorium.

Margaret worked as a researcher for the Wiltshire Victoria County History at the London University Institute of Research, and at Westfield College, London. In 1976 she published a book on the General Strike of 1926.

From 1974, for more than a decade she was a lecturer in modern history at the Polytechnic of Central London, and then in the mid-80s she became director of modular studies at the City of London Polytechnic (later London Guildhall University, and now London Metropolitan University).

In 1993, she granted permission for Joy Gardner, an overseas student, to continue her studies there, and was shocked when Joy died a few days later after the police attempted to arrest and deport her.

Following retirement in 1995, Margaret remained involved in local politics and was a key figure in the Socialist Educational Association. Between 1997 and 2002 she served as a lay chair of NHS complaints panels. She was also a governor at West Green primary school, Tottenham.

Independent-minded, a voracious reader, formidable bridge player, connoisseur of vintage wine and a francophile, Margaret enjoyed summers with Max, friends and family, in Menton, France. Although she became fluent in French, she spoke it with an English accent.

Max died in 2008. Margaret is survived by her daughter, Georgia, two grandchildren – my sister, Natasha, and me – and four great-grandchildren.