My friend June Hautot, who has died aged 82, was a determined campaigner for the National Health Service and battled to protect community rights.
In 2012 June was demonstrating against NHS cuts outside Downing Street when the then health secretary, Andrew Lansley, tried to thread his way through the crowd and failed to see June in his way. She would not let him pass without giving him a piece of her mind. Their encounter was caught on camera and widely reported in the press, with clips shown on the BBC news and follow-up interviews on TV.
June had also been involved in the Battersea Power Station Community Group campaign in 2002. The following year she fronted the group’s legal challenge to Wandsworth council and Park View International, the company redeveloping the Grade II* listed power station, based on the environmental impact, but this was ultimately unsuccessful.
The daughter of Florence and Fred Mann, June was born in Tooting, south-west London, and lived all her life in the same house. Her father worked for British Rail. On leaving Ensham secondary school, Tooting, June took office jobs and latterly worked in a primary school.
Through her brother, John, she met Arthur Hautot, a porter at St Benedict’s, a long-stay hospital in Tooting; they married in 1957 and had two sons, Ray and Billy. I first met June in 1980 when she was leading the campaign to save St Benedict’s from closure. Arthur was organising the occupation that kept the hospital open. I was in charge of designing and printing the campaign posters. June had been barred from demonstrating by an injunction, but broke this by disguising herself with a wig. In the end the hospital closed in 1981.
June continued to fight for the NHS and on other issues that affected ordinary people. She and I toured the borough of Wandsworth from Battersea to Putney and observed that the council neglected its advertising boards, so we stuck posters on them urging residents to fight council cuts. The council responded by ordering that all the noticeboards should be removed.
Arthur died in 1993. June is survived by her sons and her sister Bett.
