Illtyd Harrington

Illtyd Harrington (14 July 1931 – 1 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as deputy leader of the Greater London Council (1981–84) and then subsequently as chairman (1984–85). He was a political ally of Ken Livingstone.

Harrington was a Welshman born in Merthyr Tydfil to Timothy and Sarah (née Burchell) Harrington. It was a mixed marriage; his mother was a devout Catholic. His father was an atheist and Communist, who fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. His mother, known as "Sally", was also an anti-fascist. In the poverty of the 1930s, she also sold her wedding ring to keep the family for a week, telling her husband it had dropped down the sink.

"She beat up the national organiser of the British Union of Fascists – she was a woman not of reflection, but of action. He was coming out with all this racist filth and she went for him with her shoe. And then she took off with the fascists chasing her."

Harrington was educated at the Roman Catholic Dowlais School before going up to Trinity University College, Carmarthen (now part of University of Wales Trinity Saint David) to become a teacher. There he became a friend of Dylan Thomas. He moved to London after gaining employment in Brixton, before becoming a geography teacher at Kennington Secondary school. Then he moved on to become Head of English at Daneford School in Bethnal Green. His friends in the East End had included Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the gangsters. But he learnt the arts of welterweight boxing, plus watching his team West Ham United on a Saturday.

Harrington was openly gay and lived for fifty years with his partner, Christopher "Chris" Downes, who worked as a theatrical dresser Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith. Downes became a Board Director of the National Theatre on the South Bank. Both men were active members of the Board of Trustees of the National Youth Theatre. They shared a house in London and later in Brighton, where they entertained the gliterati. Actors were welcome in their house. Both were heavily involved as writers and editors of The Camden New Journal and West End Extra. Downes died in 2003. Harrington died on 1 October 2015, aged 84. He is survived by two siblings, Kathleen and Paul.

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