A veteran of the infamous 1936 Battle of Cable Street which stopped Mosley’s Blackshirts marching through Whitechapel has reached her 104th birthday.
Former Tower Hamlets mayoress Beatty Orwell celebrated with family, friends, staff and volunteers from Jewish Care’s Stepney Community Centre, where she has been a member for 40 years.
Beatty was born at Brunswick Buildings in Petticoat Lane in 1917, as bombs were dropping during a German air raid in the First World War, and grew up in the East End in the Depression.
She took a stand as a teenager against the fascists and has vivid memories of the troubles of the 1930s.
But now the heated politics are far behind her, and instead she has been “overwhelmed” by friends organising a surprise concert outside her home in Whitechapel, which showcased a medley of her favourite songs by Ian Leigh, a professional entertainer from the Stepney centre.
“I got the surprise of my life when I heard Ian sing,” the centenarian said. “I don’t know why anyone would do this for me but it is so special.”
Beatty, who has three children in their 70s, 12 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren, lives at home in Whitechapel with her daughter June Legg, who first invited the East London Advertiser to meet Beatty when she turned 100 in 2017.
“Mum had such an amazing 104th birthday,” June said this week. “We can’t tell you how much the family appreciates the efforts of the centre making this a memorable day.”
Beatty was just 19 when she joined the protest against 5,000 Blackshirts in 1936. The facists were trying to parade through the largely Jewish and Irish Catholic Whitechapel district when they were confronted by mass crowds of 200,000 at Gardiner's Corner blocking Whitechapel High Street.
Police diverted the march to Cable Street, but the crowds got wind of it and turned up en masse to block their path again, a young Beatty among them.
She recalled: “You have never seen so many people in all your life as were up there. We shouted ‘they shall not pass’.
“I saw a lorry overturned in Cable Street to block the fascists. There were so many of us ready for a scrap that the police stopped the march — there would have been murders.”
Beatty went on to marry activist John Orwell in 1938, and in the 1950s he was elected to Bethnal Green Borough Council.
In 1966 he became the second mayor of the newly-formed Tower Hamlets. She took over his mantle as councillor in 1972 when he died.
She lived on the Collingwood Estate most of her life, but now has a garden flat half a mile away. She retired from politics in 1982 but continued as a school governor at Bethnal Green for 30 years until 2012.
“We are proud of our mum and her eventful life,” her daughter added. “She was born in humble surroundings but along the way met the Queen at Buckingham Palace and had tea at 10 Downing Street — which isn’t bad for a girl from Petticoat Lane.”
Beatty was brought up alongside two sisters in Whitechapel by their mum.
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