My father, Christopher Birch, who has died aged 93, was a journalist and political activist. He led a varied life woven from multiple strands including leftwing politics, journalism, the gay community, Westminster Abbey and his family.
Born in St Kitts in the West Indies, Chris was the elder of two children of Norman Birch, who was serving overseas for Barclays Bank, and Iris (nee King), whose family had been resident in St Kitts for around 300 years.
He attended Queen’s Royal college in Trinidad and Tobago, before travelling to the UK in 1946 to study botany and chemistry at Bristol University. Two years later he met his future wife, Betty Andrew, when he sold her a copy of the Daily Worker newspaper (now the Morning Star) on her first day as a student there. They married in 1950, eventually settling in Fulham, south-west London.
They were both active members of the Communist party, and in 1955 Chris went to Warsaw to help with the World Festival of Youth taking place there. After the festival, both my parents were invited to work at the headquarters of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in Budapest, and so were present when Russia invaded Hungary in 1956.
Chris had a passion for the English language that found a natural outlet through a career in journalism, where he plied his trade in local government journals for around 20 years. He then worked as a subeditor on the Morning Star, a number of other publications, taught journalism, and wrote three books based on his family history, including The Milk Jug Was a Goat: Two Families, Two Caribbean Islands (2008).
The death of a close friend from HIV/Aids in 1987 led Chris to become involved in voluntary work supporting people who had the condition. He worked as a volunteer at London Lighthouse (1990-98), and subsequently at the Kobler Clinic, at Chelsea and Westminster hospital, where he later served as a governor. On one of her many visits to Lighthouse, Princess Diana admired his knees. He was chosen as one of five Lighthouse representatives to walk in her funeral procession to Westminster Abbey, and subsequently worked as a voluntary guide there for more than 17 years.
He is survived by Betty, their children, Harriet and me, four grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.
