Laurence Pollock obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/30/laurence-pollock

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As editor of the monthly magazine Campaign, which reported on Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activities, my friend Laurence Pollock, who has died of brain cancer aged 60, was at the centre of CND during its heyday in the 1980s.

Already a seasoned journalist, his experience with CND between 1984 and 1987 gave him a platform to combine his campaigning and journalistic interests. From there he moved to work at the public service union Nalgo (now Unison) until 2005, and for the Fostering Network from 2006 until his death. He also developed a freelance career, writing for the Guardian, Mental Health Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives journal and other publications.

Once in his friendship circle, you were never out of it. I met him at the East Antrim Times in 1976, when he was on a four-month course for graduate trainees. He had been born in Belfast, to Margaret (nee Peoples) and John Pollock; John was a compositor and Margaret a copytaker at the Belfast Telegraph. Laurence attended Forth River primary school, Belfast, and, from 1957, when his parents emigrated to Canada for two years, a school in Toronto. He then went to the Methodist College Belfast and Manchester University. He also spent a year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Laurence often told the story of how, towards the end of his university studies, he wrote to Brian Redhead, then at the Guardian and later to present BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, asking for advice on entering journalism. Redhead told him to apply for the Thomson journalism course, which he did.

He then worked for several major regional newspapers, including the Belfast Telegraph and the Wolverhampton Express and Star, before moving to CND’s London office.

Laurence met his future wife, Margaret Rooney, a university lecturer from Northern Ireland, while in England.

He regularly stood for Labour in the Tory-dominated Central Bedfordshire council elections, and was a member of Cranfield parish council, Bedfordshire, from 2003, representing Wharley End. He became well known locally for his energetic defence of village life and values, frequently holding public servants and developers to account. He also served as a school governor and on the local community health council, wrote the village directory and supported the development of sports facilities.

As ever, he communicated his messages effectively across the community, writing council news for the Cranfield Express, and through his Movers and Shakers blog, which continued until weeks before his death.

Margaret survives him, as do his son, Sean, and stepson, David.