Obituary - Eddie Adams

Eddie Adams, a Golborne Ward resident and social activist for many years, sadly died in the summer aged 85. Eddie, a life-long socialist and a well-known figure in the area, was involved in many campaigns on topics such as improving housing and alleviating poverty.

But Eddie's activism was not only confined to North Kensington. As a member of the Young Communist League he joined a clandestine organisation with the opaque name London Recruits. The members of this group were white people who were able to take advantage of their skin colour to go on secret missions to apartheid South Africa. Their aim was to help in the struggle to end the racist regime.

In 1969 Eddie detonated a bomb in Cape Town. But this was no explosive with lethal consequences, at least not physical ones. For the bomb scattered not shrapnel but anti-apartheid leaflets across the street. Eddie also helped to hijack a railway station tannoy system to broadcast anti-apartheid propaganda. He reputed his risky heroics in 1970.

Back in London, Eddie spent many years working at the North Kensington Law Centre and also ran local history sessions at Kensington & Chelsea College (now Morley College) on Wornington Road.

Eddie's encyclopaedic knowledge of all things North Kensington made him a natural as one of the interviewees in the documentary Wild West 10 which traces the history of Golborne Ward. You can watch that film here.

You can read more about the fascinating London Recruits story here.