Hedy Fromings
23rd December 1926 – 19th January 2023
“Mostly I am interested in people and talking to them.”
Hedwig (known as Hedy) was born in Ruprechtice Liberec in Czechoslovakia. In 1938 the Munich agreement was signed allowing the Germans to occupy the Sudetenland. Hedy’s father was a well-known trades unionist and edited a left-wing newspaper. He was arrested by the Germans and survived six years in a concentration camp. Hedy, aged 12, and her mother were helped to escape by a Quaker organization in Prague. Hedy and her mother spent the war in North Wales as refugees.
After the war, Hedy trained as an architect first in London and then Prague, but decided to return to England. In 1961 she married Tony Fromings, also an architect, and in 1963 they had twins, Andy and Lenka. In 1965 Hedy and Tony moved to Forest Hill, becoming stalwarts of the South East London peace movement for the rest of their lives. Tony died in 2006.
In the 1980s and 90s, they were both regular attenders of London Region CND events in Conway Hall and at SOAS, and also attended Nuclear Trains Action Group meetings. They were involved in many campaigns, including marches to Aldermaston, regular CND stalls in Forest Hill and Sydenham, and organising the annual Hiroshima Day peace picnic. In the 1980s, they toured South East London with Buddhist monks in an open top peace bus. Hedy also organized Morning Star bazaars for many years.
Hedy continued to be active after Tony’s death, and was secretary of Forest Hill and Sydenham CND. In this role, she was an organizer of the annual CND Plant Fair, which raised money for the Chernobyl Children’s Fund, and worked with other CND groups on stalls at Lewisham Peoples Day, on the distribution of White Poppies, and on the Remembrance Sunday laying of a peace wreath. She continued to campaign for peace until finally prevented by declining health.
Outside politics, Hedy’s greatest love was folk music and dancing. She was actively involved in a Czech dance group as a dancer and singer for over fifty years, and organized national and international tours returning regularly to Czechoslovakia.
Hedy had a warm and generous personality – she loved people and they loved her. Alongside Diane Gemie, Jim Radford and Gurbakhsh Garcha, she was one of a group of South East London peace activists who remained active into their nineties. They are all very much missed, and their contributions to the peace movement will not be forgotten.