(31 May 1941 – 14 May 2025)
It is with great sadness that I write of the death of Professor Dame June Clark on the 14th May this year. June joined the Socialist Health Association (SHA) in 1997 not long after she was appointed Professor of Community Nursing at Swansea University.
Working in the same department I can testify that June Clark was indeed a champion of nurses (https://www.rcn.org.uk/magazines/People/2025/May/Remembering-Professor-Dame-June-Clark ) and Health Visitors ( https://ihv.org.uk/news-and-views/voices/professor-dame-june-clark-dbe-1941-2025/ ).
I knew June as a socialist, her values developed by her upbringing in the South Wales valleys and a lifetime of activism in different ways. With her warm personality and ‘down to earth’ approach I can certainly imagine how she found the RCN in the late 1960s too genteel a body! ( Dame June Clark obituary | Nursing | The Guardian).
A local Labour Party member, June became an active member of the SHA in Wales. She was a regular attender at meetings and a guest speaker at our public meetings. She was particularly enthused and involved in the production and promotion of the ‘Going for Gold’ publication in the late 1990s along with Dr Julian Tudor Hart and others.
June contributed to much policy development in Wales as well as the UK. Notably she was a member of the 1997 Royal Commission on long-term care that called for free personal care in the UK.
After her retirement in 2003 she became Professor Emeritus of Community Nursing at Swansea University. She remained an SHA Cymru member and attended meetings after we transferred to using ‘Zoom’. Her characteristic frank speaking did not diminish.
From SHA Cymru we send our heartfelt condolences to June’s family. Thank you for all you did to fight for a Socialist Health and Care system June.
Alison Scouller (chair, SHA Cymru) on behalf of our members (19/6/25).
Photograph credit: Wikipedia