Who from Brighton’s past should we be remembering? The film ‘Vindication Swim’ recalls the achievements of the amazing Mercedes Gleitze

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 13th March 2024)

Brighton has a poor record of preserving the memory of those who have gone before. How many Brightonians, not least those who are recent arrivals, know who Herbert Carden, Dorothy Stringer or Lewis Cohen were? And why should they? The City Council does little to commemorate these and other individuals who helped make the city what it is. The Argus remembers them, and Brighton and Hove Buses names significant people from Brighton’s past on its buses and on a special website. It should be commended for this.

From time to time I write about people I have known who have died, people like Selma Montford, Dennis Hobden, Ruth Larkin, Bernie Jordan and Bob Cristofili. Mary Clarke is the ‘forgotten suffragette’ in spite of being Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister. Mary ran the Brighton office of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She died on Christmas Day 1910 from a brain haemorrhage probably caused by rough treatment at the hands of the police and prison authorities immediately before her passing. There is no memorial for Mary other than her name appearing on the front of a Brighton bus. There is now a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion estate. 

Another long-forgotten Brightonian is Mercedes Gleitze. She was born in Brighton who, in 1927, became the first British woman to swim the English Channel. Her swimming achievements were not ‘limited’ to that. She is believed to be the first person to swim the Straights of Gibraltar and was the first person to swim to Robben Island and back to Cape Town, a sea I know well as I was brought up there and can testify to the currents and coldness of those waters.

After nearly 100 years during which time she had become largely forgotten, her legacy is now secure through a film that went on general release last Friday, deliberately coinciding with International Women’s Day. The film, Vindication Swim, features the amazing Kirsten Callaghan and the equally impressive John Locke. Remarkably, it was written and directed by a 23-year-old Brightonian, Elliott Hasler. If you warch just one film this year, make sure it’s Vindication Swim.

With Kirsten Callaghan and John Locke (I’m the one who didn’t dress up for the occasion!)

After a special screening of the film on International Women’s Day at Brighton’s Duke of York cinema, a cinema that Mercedes herself had visited, Kirsten Callaghan, John Locke and Elliott Hasler answered questions from the audience. Kirsten described some of the discomforts and challenges faced by Mercedes which she, too, had experienced. For example, she wore a heavy 100-year-old one-piece bathing suit. The leather in the goggles she used bled, resulting in a disgusting taste seeping into her mouth. On one occasion she was in the water for four hours, with the salt affecting her mouth and sense of taste. Elliott, too, spent lengthy periods filming in the water, but he had the protection of a wetsuit! John, on the other hand, stayed in a small support boat as had his character, Harold Best, who had coached Mercedes.

All the scenes in the sea were filmed off the south coast. No use was made of stage tanks nor ‘green screen’ technology where subjects can be superimposed onto virtual backgrounds. 

Back to Mercedes herself. Her first endurance swimming record was for 26 hours. Over several years she extended this record to 45 and, subsequently, 46 hours. She had become a popular and famous personality, and when she undertook these endurance swims in public swimming baths, crowds would attend and encourage her by singing together.

Most of Mercedes epic swims, including her world records for endurance swimming, were sponsored.  She used her sponsorship and winnings to open accommodation for homeless people, particularly homeless women, with the first Mercedes Gleitze Home opening in Leicester in 1933. The charity bearing her name continues to operate providing accommodation for homeless people but, sadly, not in Brighton. She helped unemployed people to move from the north to Leicester where there were jobs. She is also said to have supported the extension of the franchise to women below the age of 30 in 1928.

Towards the end of her life, Mercedes became increasingly reclusive. She denied her past achievements and would not discuss them with her family.  She died in1981 in London aged 80. There is now a blue plaque commemorating this daughter of Brighton at the house in Freshfield Road where she was born in 1900.

I hope that in future more Brighton women, perhaps not as exceptional as Mercedes Gleitze, can be remembered for their own extraordinary achievements.

Desmond Tutu: A Prophet in Troubled Times

Desmond Tutu was a bright beacon of protest, dignity and Christian compassion. His light might no longer be with us, but his vision for a Rainbow Nation lives on.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a man of great bravery and of great humour. “When the missionaries came to Africa”, he once said, “they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray’. We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

During the worst years of apartheid, he gave a voice to the voiceless, risking persecution and imprisonment, using his pulpit to denounce the crimes of apartheid and setting out a vision for a better South Africa. The risk to him personally cannot be overstated, and imprisonment, even assassination, were a constant reality.

His courage knew no bounds. When confronted by a crowd intent on killing a suspected informer through the barbaric process of “necklacing” (car tyres were put around the person, petrol was poured on them and they were burnt to death), he told the crowd that they would have to kill him first before they killed the terrified woman. He saved her life.

He fearlessly entered some of the citadels of Afrikanerdom, on one occasion speaking at one of the most prominent Afrikaans universities, the first black person ever to have done so. The students did not know how to cope with his intellect and humour as he demolished the fundamentals of apartheid and ridiculed its practical implementation.

For example, he said that there was a popular myth that black people wanted to drive white people into the sea. (I remember as a six year old being fed such a diet of hatred at my school). Tutu reflected: “How could we drive you into the sea? You don’t even allow us onto the beach!”.

He also pointed to the way black people were treated as second, if not third class citizens. The reality was that under apartheid black people could not get citizenship at all and denied the vote until 1994. He told the students that there was a very dangerous freeway outside Soweto where there had been many fatalities as people were hit by fast moving cars as they crossed from the railway station into Soweto itself.  A call for a bridge to be built fell on deaf ears. The most that the white authorities would do was to put up a sign warning motorists: “Beware! Blacks cross here”. He said that someone had amended the sign so it read: “Beware! Blacks VERY cross here”.

Tutu lived for much of his life in Soweto, on Vilakazi Street, where Mandela also had his home. It is probably the only street in the world that was home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners!

Mandela described him as “… sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless”.

He was always prepared to talk to the ‘enemy’, although they often ignored him. “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies”, he said.

After the end of apartheid, within a few weeks of Nelson Mandela being elected president, he had a clash with Madiba. One of the first decisions of the new ANC Government was to vote themselves a pay increase. Archbishop Tutu commented: “The new government has stopped the gravy train only long enough to get on board”. To his credit, Mandela reversed the decision after a tense stand-off with his long time friend.

Mandela did get his own back after Tutu questioned Mandela’s wardrobe, saying that the famous Mandela shirts were not appropriate for someone holding the highest office in the land. Mandela retorted: “I will not take lessons on fashion from a man who wears dresses in public”.

Truth and reconciliation after the years of apartheid became a cornerstone of post-apartheid South Africa, sadly swept away in the post-Mandela years by corruption, nepotism, and incompetence. There was just one person who had the stature, respect and ability to lead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Tutu poured his heart and very being into the process, openly sobbing on occasions, losing his temper occasionally, and bringing comfort to the bereaved and the abused, through words and hugs.  The TRC was not a perfect process, but I do not know of any other process anywhere, ever, that helped to heal some of the most profound wounds.

He was outspoken about gay rights, saying: “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.”. He equated homophobia with racism, saying that it was a crime against humanity and “every bit as unjust” as apartheid.  His own daughter, Mpho married a woman, and he gave a blessing at the marriage.

In more recent years Tutu denounced violence against women, and spoke about the responsibility of men to stand up against sexist violence: “It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we truly measure up as men.”

I had the great honour of meeting Desmond Tutu on one occasion. He was warm and he spoke highly of my uncle, himself a prominent anti-apartheid Bishop in the 1970s. My parents, at the time both members of the Synod in Cape Town, voted for Tutu to become Archbishop of Cape Town. He was unsuccessful on that first occasion but was elected a few years later, in 1986. (In South Africa bishops are elected unlike in England where they are appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Prime Minister of the day).

His episcopal seat, St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, sits adjacent to the Parliamentary estate. The juxtaposition of the then white only Parliament and of the Cathedral with its new, dynamic Archbishop provided hope and inspiration to millions of South Africans. Tutu led numerous marches and campaigns for the formal end of apartheid from the front steps of the Cathedral. My own brother and sister were arrested on the steps of the Cathedral, my sister twice, during anti-apartheid student protests in the early 1970s.

 

Desmond Tutu spoke about South Africa being a Rainbow Nation. Corruption, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and violence against women and children, became important causes for him after the first free and democratic elections. “I call on men and boys everywhere to take a stand against the mistreatment of girls and women. It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we truly measure up as men”, he said. His Rainbow Nation is still an aspiration, and while we have democracy in South Africa, it was a sadness for him that such injustices and poverty remain.

With him for more than 60 years was his wife, Leah, with whom he had four children. The daughter of a domestic worker, Mrs. Tutu has always been concerned about the social rights and conditions of domestic workers, being one of the largest professional groups in South Africa. Using her experience as a teacher, she became a true advocate of equal opportunities and social rights for the domestic workforce and one of the founders of the South African Domestic Workers Association.

This morning (26th December 2021) Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, said that Tutu’s death marked “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans”. I believe that Desmond Tutu was an outstanding member of that outstanding generation, and I mourn his death today while celebrating his life.

South Africa and the world is a poorer place, a sadder place, and a quieter place now that Desmond Tutu is no longer with us.

Reflections on my trip to Cape Town March 2014

I returned today from a two week trip to Cape Town. This was my fourth return trip to South Africa since I moved to England in 1979. This trip followed ones in 1995, 1999 and 2010. The first trip was characterised by optimism about the future. Mandela had been elected the year before, and the Rainbow Nation was in full bloom. Mandela was the great hope, while Winnie Mandela was portrayed as a cause for concern who, potentially, might destroy what Nelson was creating.

In 1999 the fear of crime seemed to dominate most things. Street children were in great evidence and the ANC government had not addressed the gross inequalities that were so obvious. The sense of honesty that existed previously about apartheid and racism, had been replaced by collective denial from those who had previously supported apartheid. It was virtually impossible to find anyone who would admit to having ever supported apartheid. ‘Incomers’ such as squatters and ‘Nigerians’ were being blamed for crime and destroying communities.

There was a siege mentality amongst the white community in 2010. Julius Malema was at the height of his influence, and tensions were exacerbated by the murder of the white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche, midway through my trip. Malema’s ‘Kill the Boer’ song symbolised the threat some in the white community feared.

This time I have been pleasantly surprised by what I have observed in Cape Town. In general conversation, there was next to no reference to crime, although I understand that gangsterism remains a big problem in poorer communities. I felt as safe, if not more so, as I did on my previous trips, walking around the city centre on my own, although it was during the morning that I went out. Whether I would have felt the same had I been a lone woman is another matter.

There is much evidence of a prosperous economy (notwithstanding the weakness of the Rand). The city and middle class suburbs are clean and roads are very well maintained. Traffic flows well, and in the City itself there was next to no obvious extreme poverty such as street children. I saw a number of rough sleepers, but no more than in Brighton. Outside the city the informal settlements (squatter camps) are much in evidence, although a great deal is being done to provide housing, electricity and sanitation. However, while I was there, there was some rioting by people from the informal settlements protesting at slow progress in improving their lives.

However, ‘load shedding’ – rolling power cuts – were introduced nationwide as the generating company, Eskom, could not cope with demand. It seems as though many of the state controlled businesses, such as Eskom and Metrorail, due to political patronage, are badly run and inefficient. The trains, while very cheap, were appalling, doors not working and graffiti inside every carriage and outside on all trains.

In Cape Town the Democratic Alliance (DA) are evidently competent administrators under the leadership of Helen Zille. The DA can expect to gain in strength on 7th May (the next national and provincial elections) although not exceeding even 25% of the popular vote. It should comfortably hold its power base around Cape Town with an increased majority.

The ANC, riddled by corruption and misuse of patronage, will get a large majority, but its vote could drop to as low as 60%. An opinion poll published on Sunday March 9th had the ANC as low as 45%, but that is unlikely to be reflected in the polls.

President Jacob Zuma has had some achievements, including playing down the race card in national politics by sidelining Malema, although he has indirectly introduced an element of ethnicity into politics by promoting Zulus at the expense of others. Other political parties don’t really feature, being small, regional or marginal. Zuma is implicated in scandal, most recently the amount of public funds spent on his private residence, Nklanda.

Overall, poverty and inequality persist and are obvious but, in Cape Town at least, there are signs of progress. However, unless there is a strong opposition to the ANC, there will be little sense of urgency to bring about the transformational change needed across the rest of the country.

The political situation can best be summed up by this quote from Eusebius McKaiser, a political analyst: “… we will only ever have a sustainable and stable democracy if we have a competitive political system. This means that a ruling party, ideally, needs to harbour some fear that it might lose an election. Such fear will surely increase the chances of responsive and accountable government.”

The national and provincial elections on May 7th will indicate what we can expect in the future.

Gamblers in Brighton and Hove lose an average £343.43 a year each

If you needed any convincing that gambling is a mug’s game, figures released by online casino CastleCasino (and reported in the Brighton Argus) showed gamblers in Brighton and Hove lost an average £343.43 a year each, with punters from the City losing £147,500 each year.  Those in Worthing lost an average of £431.97, in total about £77,000 a year with only Middlesbrough (£479.29) and Liverpool (£482.42) faring worse.

That’s the average.  There are people losing much, much more.

When I was young I used to see, on my way back from school on a Friday evening, migrant workers who worked in the docks in Cape Town, being duped by the ‘pea in the bottle top’ scam.  The promise of doubling their meagre wages was too great, and when in a matter of minutes they had lost their entire weekly wage packet, their distressed pleas for a refund were dismissed.

I am still haunted by the pathetic wailing of a middle aged man whose distress was met by laughter and contempt.

I have a mixed emotional reaction to gambling.  On the one hand I can see the adrenalin charged attraction, a quick win, something for nothing. On the other hand, the plight of that labourer, unable to send money home to his family, remains with me, and I feel sick the pit of my stomach.

During this time of austerity, desperate people do desperate things, but gambling is not the answer. Like alcohol and drugs, for many people it is something that goes no further than a recreational activity.  For others, it becomes the problem, destroying relationships, families and lives.

A stark warning about gambling comes from Dr Richard Bowskill of the Priory clinic in Hove, quoted in the Argus: “It’s an average so there will be people who lose more – it is still high compared to annual disposable income. In that group will be people spending much more which can often be a sign of gambling addiction. When I see people they have already got into trouble, sometimes in the tens of thousands of pounds. I have seen patients have to make themselves bankrupt. Some people have lost their homes, and the problem with an addiction is they keep on doing it.”

There is help available, including the support of Gamblers Anonymous Brighton and Hove:

• To help people with gambling problems.
• Meetings every Friday, 8-10pm on the ground floor of The Allen Centre.
• The Allen Centre, 60 Sackville Gardens, Hove, BN3 4GH [map]
• 01273 595961

Postscript (added 16th January 2014): I highly recommend the following interesting article ‘Understanding Gambling Addiction’ by Dr Paul McLaren from the Priory Group.

Are we facing a Summer of Discontent because of the London Olympics 2012?

There has been some discussion in the media regarding the increase in homelessness and rough sleeping in Brighton and Hove. On BBC Sussex today (Wednesday 27th July) it was reported that Sussex Police have said that the number of rough sleepers has increased from 42 to 72 over the last year, although the City Council’s estimate is that the figure is 42.

Meanwhile, the Brighton Argus has reported that “homeless people are heading to Brighton and Hove to escape a purge of London’s streets ahead of the Olympics. Charities have reported ‘harassment’ of rough sleepers in the capital as London mayor Boris Johnson looks to eradicate homelessness before the 2012 Games.”

I don’t know if that is actually happening, although I would be surprised if such an initiative had started this far out from the start of the Olympics which commence a year today.

I do know that homeless people were ‘removed’ from the streets in Atlanta and Sydney before previous Olympic Games, and I was in Cape Town last year just before the start of the Football World Cup and there was very definitely measures being taken to ensure that homeless people, particularly street children, were not in evidence.

The Olympics may see an increase in homeless people arriving in Brighton from London. But as likely, perhaps more likely, will be the combination of a number of factors (as well as traditional reasons for high demand such as people wanting to move to Brighton, students staying on after graduation, changing demographics and household sizes, etc.) that will see a significant increase in homelessness in Brighton and Hove. They include:

• Changes to the Local Housing Allowance
• Restrictions being placed on housing benefit eligibility for single people under the age of 35
• Inability of first time buyers to get a mortgage
• Anticipated increase in unemployment
• Changes to Legal Aid (that will exclude people from getting advice they need on welfare benefits, debt and many housing cases).

I have previously described this as the creation of a ‘Perfect Storm’. Most of these factors will come into effect in the next 12 months, and if the predictions relating to the Olympics come about, next summer will see a potentially explosive situation in Brighton.

I have confidence in the willingness and ability of Brighton and Hove City Council to try to mitigate this situation. We have been fortunate that both current and former administrations, indeed all parties, on the City Council have had a high commitment to addressing the challenges of housing and homelessness. I also think that there is better co-operation between all agencies than ever before. But in spite of this, the ‘Perfect Storm’ is being created outside of Brighton and Hove, and there is only so much that we collectively can do.

What is needed is a rethink by government of the impact of those measures for which they are responsible, and by the Mayor of London regarding fall-out from the London Games. Otherwise, we will see a Summer of Discontent next year.

Similarities and differences in housing need and supply between Brighton and Cape Town

I am about to leave to meet with a delegation from the South African Housing Foundation, including the Minister for Housing from the Provincial Government of the Western Cape.  This afternoon we will be visiting BHT’s Recovery Project and, time permitting, First Base Day Centre.

This has become an annual event, and is one that I particularly enjoy given that I was born and brought up in Cape Town, the capital of the Western Cape. 

In preparing for this afternoon I read a speach made by the Minister last July, and it was uncanny the number of similarities between the housing situation in the Western Cape and in Brighton.  Of course the local conditions differ massively, not least the huge numbers living in informal settlements around Cape Town and elsewhere, the level of violence, and the depth of poverty in the country of my birth.  But the key issues were similar, supply, the need for creative solutions, HIV and drug misuse, inward migration, unemployment, affordability, the impact of the recession.

These is an extract in the Minister’s speach made during last year’s budget debate that speaks of his aspirations.  With one or two minor differences, I could comfortably express the same aspirations for Brighton and Hove.  In fact, I intend in my presentation to use his words.  I wonder if he and his officials will recognise them!