bob scarth - the passing of a CSM STALWART

Bob Scarth who died recently aged 83 was a pillar of the Movement in the 1980s and 1990s. An active Methodist, he embodied the old saying that the Labour Movement owed more to Methodism than Marxism. Bob was a committed trade unionist who regularly contributed to the Industrial Pioneer magazine. He also wrote the biography of Midlands farmworker and agricultural trade union pioneer Joseph Arch who was a Methodist local preacher. Bob brought a trade union perspective to CSM which otherwise was somewhat lacking.

Bob was a stalwart member of the CSM Executive who attended regularly and made many positive contributions. He pioneered and organised the East Midlands branch. He also organised a residential conference held in a theological college in his area on behalf of the EC and also assisted in the plannig of conferences held in Yorkshire. These annual weekend conferences were a much valued feature of the Movement in those two decades and it is sad that all of my colleagues most involved in organising them so successfully have died in recent years (the others being the late Gary Hobbs and Harry Watson).

Bob was much involved in the annual Joseph Arch commemoration arranged jointly by the T&GWU and the Methodist Church each June in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. Every year for many years, Bob would venture to my home area of West Dorset for the Tolpuddle Martyrs rally and the Methodist service which followed it. He always set up a CSM recruitment and literature stall under the Martyrs Tree where I used to help him. The choice of venue reflected his good judgement as the third Sunday in July was either in a heat wave where shade was needed or a heavy downpour where the tree provided some shelter!

Bob was a conscientious and self effacing man who lived out his faith both in the causes he championed and in the way he related to others at a personal level. Many of us have lost a good friend and we extend our condolences to Joy in her great loss.

Peter Dawe, CSM Chair 1983-93, 04/06/2010