Her “fat fraudster” husband called this French Hugenot Protestant “the keeper of my Jewish soul”. Of her life with him, she wrote an autobiography titled A Mind of My Own: My Life With Robert Maxwell and in it described him “as bullying, unfaithful and frequently absent as he amassed his empire”. This mother of nine children’s expertise on the Holocaust was renowned. She put up with a lot and of the media tycoon concluded: “God forbid I run into him again”.
Category: CAMPAIGNERS
-
Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell (better known as Betty Maxwell, 1921 – 2013)
-
Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE
The Jamaican mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was tragically murdered in a racist incident in 1993, has done huge amounts of community work in her son’s name since. A tireless campaigner for justice, Baroness Lawrence became a Labour peer in July 2013 and was also a guest on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs in June 2012. -
Kerry Grist-Needham (formerly Kerry Needham)
Since her twenty-one-month year old son Ben went missing on the Greek Island of Kos in July 1991, Ms. Grist-Needham has tirelessly campaigned to try and find him. Unlike with other cases, little help has been given by the authorities or charities. A volunteer named Scott Morrison has set up a website at http://www.helpfindben.co.uk and it truly deserves the support of each and every one of us.
-
Martha Payne
A fearless child who set about improving school meals by posting photographs and rating the junk she was fed. Her blog, NeverSeconds, became an internet sensation and even Jamie Oliver backed her. Subsequently, bureaucrats at Argyll and Bute Council banned her from taking photographs but all that did was make her more famous. Good for her. -
Virginia McKenna OBE
This British actress is best known for playing Joy Adamson in the true-life film Born Free alongside her real-life husband, Bill Travers (1957 – 1994). She’s also starred in the Ring of Bright Water, The Camomile Lawn and Swallows and Amazons but it is for her work as a wildlife campaigner that McKenna is best known. She co-founded the Born Free Foundation in 1991 with her husband and along with Ace Bourke and John Rendall helped release Christian, a lion who lived at World’s End in Chelsea, into the wild in Africa. His story has since become one of YouTube’s biggest hits. -
Gerry & Kate McCann
Their daughter Madeleine disappeared on the evening 3rd May 2007 from a holiday apartment whilst they sat enjoying tapas with a bunch of friends. Some believe the poor child was kidnapped. Others have alternative theories. A public fund to find “Maddie” raised hundreds of thousands of pounds but Mrs McCann’s book, Madeleine, contains so many references to trips on private jets and meeting famous people that it makes one question whether the search for the child or fame has become the focus. -
Gina Miller
This modern day suffragette is a philanthropist and founding partner of SCM Private, a Belgravia based firm of wealth managers. Gina Miller has three degrees, is originally from Guyana, South America and is leading a fight against the conflicts of interest and lack of transparency in the city and charities. With her husband, Alan, she was a major contributor to the Lady Thatcher Infirmary at the Royal Hospital. Her Miller Philanthropy foundation and Goodwill Exchange volunteer exchange are just two examples of the achievements of this truly powerful and driven giver. -
Bono (Paul David Hewson)
This Irishman is one of the world’s best-known philanthropic performers. Having invested £56 million in Facebook in 2009, he’s now the richest living musician. His shareholding of 2.3% in the company is now worth some £940 million. This “face of fusion philanthropy” is rarely seen in public without his trademark sunglasses and created his stage name in honour of a hearing aid shop. -
Peter Wetherell
He’s the gent who successfully led the campaign against Westminster Council’s ludicrous attempt to expand parking charges in the West End. He’s also Mayfair’s leading estate agent and the man credited with bringing residential life back to the area. He’s well known for wearing red socks and for his love of cigars. -
Hakim Berkani
A former parking warden who was probably the only decent one out there. He refused to behave like his grasping colleagues in Kensington & Chelsea (who referred to themselves as “Ali Baba and his 40 thieves”) and got constructively dismissed as a result. He rightly got £20,000 in compensation at an industrial tribunal but decently commented: “’I’m very disappointed because I believe that justice has not been done. My job was worth more to me than any amount of money.”