Jack and Merle Boddy

Very early on he became immersed in the National Union of Agricultural Workers in Lincolnshire

Born

1922

Died

2004

When Jack Boddy (1922-2004) left school in Norwich he became a cowman and then a farm foreman by the age of 21. Very early on he became immersed in the National Union of Agricultural Workers in Lincolnshire and returned to Norwich in 1960 as District Secretary.

In 1978 he was voted in as General Secretary of the NUAW, pushing for workers’ rights and the need to be determined to achieve it. Between 1982 and 1987 he was the workers’ representative on the Wages Board and became the Group Secretary of The Transport and General Workers’ Union.

He also championed the need and right for children in rural schools to have equal opportunities, served as a Norfolk County Councillor, a Breckland District Councillor, then a member of the Swaffham Town Council and mayor in 1991-1992 and was awarded an MBE in 1973.

Disillusioned by the Iraq war he resigned from the Labour Party in 2003.

His wife Merle (1919-1987) was, like Jack, from a Quaker family and a staunch Labour supporter, always fighting for the underdog.

For twenty years she taught at Swaffham Secondary Modern School (Now The Nicholas Hamond Academy), mainly remedial classes.

She became the Nar Valley representative on Breckland Council, a member of Swaffham Urban District Council and was twice mayor.

Also the chair of the Mid-Norfolk Society for the mentally handicapped, the local branch of MIND and of the local Youth Club management committee, a governor of Hamond’s school and South Greenhoe Middle School, a founder member of the Swaffham Twinning Group and of the museum.