As a teenager, my mother, Moragh Bradshaw, who has died aged 87, asked her father what life was for. His answer, that it was to help others, was advice that had a profound impact, leading Moragh to dedicate much of her time and energy to social justice and the environment.
Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, to Winifred and Kenneth Walker, an engineering lecturer, Moragh spent most of her early childhood separated from her parents after she and her elder sister, Kathrine, were evacuated to New Zealand, their mother’s homeland, during the second world war.
After returning to Britain in 1945, she went to Sowerby Bridge grammar school and then studied geography at Edinburgh University, where she helped establish the first CND group in the city and joined the Society of Friends (Quakers), attracted by their belief in pacificism.
Moragh, left, with her aunt and sister in New Zealand
In the 1960s Moragh worked as a town planner for the London county council, Skelmersdale Development Corporation and the National Parks Commission. It was during this period that she first got very involved in volunteering, participating in international exchanges organised by the Quakers, spending weekends dredging canals and restoring the Ffestiniog narrow gauge railway in north Wales, which was where she met my father, Paul Bradshaw, a solicitor and fellow volunteer.
They married in 1967 and shortly afterwards moved to Liverpool, where they raised four children. Moragh’s tendency to say yes when asked to help led to a life rich with volunteering experiences, ranging from helping to set up a Citizens Advice bureau in Toxteth and volunteering there for more than 30 years, to teaching for the National Childbirth Trust and chairing a housing association. She was appointed MBE in 1989 for her contribution to the St Helen’s and Knowsley Groundwork Trust’s pioneering work to restore former industrial land.
After she and Paul moved to north Wales in 2005, Moragh took on new commitments, including helping to organise a local eco fair and coordinating the volunteer stewards for Porthmadog Maritime Museum.
Moragh will also be remembered for her needlework skills and the generosity with which she shared them. She studied embroidery in the 80s and in later life devoted much time to patchworking and quilting, not only creating many beautiful pieces herself, but devoting significant time to supporting others’ creativity, running workshops for local textile groups and teaching children to knit.
She is survived by Paul, their children, James, Helen and me, and four grandsons. Her younger son, Edward, died in 2002.
