Party legend Vera Head dies at 97

The sad news that party legend Vera Head had died came via Candy Piercy on Facebook:

Sad news. The redoubtable Vera Head died last week at the age of 97 after a long illness.

Long time campaigners and members of Lib Dem Women will remember her dedication to Women’s Rights and to getting women elected.

Vera taught me so much as an agent. And I still quote her in training sessions today.

When I was a Campaigns Officer in 1992 I asked Vera to agent Liz Lynne in Rochdale. I could not think of anyone else who would stand up to Cyril Smith and make sure Liz won her seat. And of course Vera delivered a famous victory.

Again in 1997 I asked Vera to be the agent for Jackie Ballard in Taunton. Again Vera pulled the campaign together and Jackie was elected. Another great win.

There are so many stories about Vera. We will put them all together soon. But to end on, until this May Vera was a councillor on Amershsm Town Council.

Still enjoying scaring the living daylights out of the local Tories as one of the oldest councillors in the country!

Oh, and scaring a few Lib Dems along the way too!

A fierce friend and a ferocious political adversary. And I suspect you are now giving St Peter a hard time about his organisation of Heaven!

Vera, we shall miss you. RIP.

I am so sad to see this. Certainly Vera could scare people when they deserved it, but she was also kind and incredibly wise. I and very many people across the party learned so much from her. I can’t quite believe she has gone. She’s been there throughout my entire involvement in the party. I first came across her in the early 90s when I was first involved with the then Women Liberal Democrats.

She was also a stalwart of Humanist and Secularist Lib Dems.

We have much to thank her for.

Please feel free to share your memories of her in the comments.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

4 Comments

  • Cheryl Green 21st Jan '26 - 6:28pm

    I have many fond memories of Vera from Candidates Development Days. She was always kind to Candidates but very astute, missing nothing.
    Vera told me that her grandson, when he was a small boy, asked her how old she would be when she died. She told him I ‘ll live until I’m in my 90’s. You were right!
    You will be sadly missed, we need more Vera’s in the world

  • Mick Taylor 22nd Jan '26 - 9:43am

    This is sad, if not entirely unexpected, news. I remember Vera from countless conferences, when she was a stalwart on the WLD stall. She was taught too. I remember hearing that she’d had a heart attack and had not expected to see her at conference, but there she was enthusiastic as ever on the WLD stall.
    We do indeed need more people like Vera, who loyally dedicate their lives to public service and our party. Vera will be sadly missed

  • Michael Ansell 19th Feb '26 - 11:15pm

    Vera was my agent when I successfully stood in the Amersham Town Council Bye-election of 1984. We would never have won the seat without her.

    Thank you Vera

    Rest In Peace

    Michael Ansell

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

This post has pre moderation enabled, please be patient whilst waiting for it to be manually reviewed. Liberal Democrat Voice is made up of volunteers who keep the site running in their free time.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Chambers
    > Clearly the aircraft carriers were a pork barrel for Gordon Brown’s constituency. Doubtful. More to do with the US "pivot to Asia". The UK does not have...
  • Mark ValladaresMark Valladares
    @ Matt (Bristol), You use the word “vanguardism” as though politicians don’t have an obligation to lead, rather than merely following the loudest voice...
  • Mark Smulian
    I first worked with Michael on his three pamphlets published in the mid-1980s by Liberator and mentioned above by Geoffrey Payne. He was, obviously, an effectv...
  • Geoff Reid
    As well as being at the heart of the best Assembly/Conference coffee room conversations, Michael was for me the best compass we had over half a century. His lea...
  • Margaret Pollus
    @Tristan Ward Trans women are women - biological women. So the Equality Act 2010 needs to ensure that all womens rights, including pregnancy and maternity prote...