Tributes paid to battling Elsie, 91

ELSIE SHAW

Veteran Liberal supporter Elsie Shaw has died aged 91.

One of the borough’s longest-serving Liberal politicians, former councillor Elsie Shaw, has died at the aged of 91.

Mrs Shaw, who was born in Delph, passed away on Saturday at Millfields Residential Home, Huddersfield Road, Oldham,where she had lived for four years. Her funeral is at St Thomas’ Church, Leesfield, next Tuesday at 1 pm.

In 1998 she was honoured for 60 years’ service to her party — she joined the Young Liberals in Delph in 1938 — with a special president’s medal on her retirement from civic life.

Paying tribute to her, Councillor Howard Sykes, leader of Oldham Council, said: “I have known Elsie all my political life.

“When I first got elected back in 1987, Elsie was one of our much respected elder statesmen who did not say a lot, but when she did you listened.

“She always had time for our new councillors and offered many sound words of advice that have stood the test of time and I still use today.

“A lifelong Liberal and battler for her constituents — if Elise Shaw was on your side you had a real terrier in your camp — ‘No’ was not an answer she was prepared to accept.

“She touched and made better the lives of many thousands of people, including me. But besides being a councillor, chairman of the Parish Council and a former mayor, she was also a mum and a grandmother and never let you forget it.

“On behalf of my Lib-Dem colleagues, not only in Oldham but throughout Britain, our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”

She was a Liberal Democrat member of Oldham Council for 22 years until that year, and also Mayor in 1989-90.

Her year of office coincided with Oldham Athletic’s glory season when she travelled with the team which played at Wembley in the League Cup final.

She also served on Saddleworth Parish Council, where she was chairman in 1994, and her charity efforts for Oldham and Saddleworth raised nearly £60,000 for charities.

She served on Oldham Housing Committee for 22 years, and was a member of the Greater Manchester Fire Authority.

She also served on the Social Services and Oldham Family Practitioner committees.

A widow with one son, Craig, and grandson, Greg, Mrs Shaw lived for the major part of her life in Lees, later moving to Hood Square at Springhead.

She was renowned for her hospitality on election days, when she held open house for her party’s candidates and workers, serving tea, coffee and sandwiches late into the evening.

She was believed to be Oldham’s longest serving school governor when she also stepped down from that role in 2004 at Christ Church, Denshaw, which she had held for 30 years.

She was also a governor at Blue Coat, Delph, Springhead and Hey with Zion schools.

She worked for more than 20 years for the Lees Old People’s Welfare Committee, and also as a volunteer for the Delph Old People’s Welfare Committee, Oldham Carnival, and Christie Cancer Research.