Corinne Templer obituary

My aunt Corinne Templer, who has died aged 91 of Covid-19, made an enormous contribution to the NHS and to civic society in the London suburb of Ealing over a period of 60 years. Dubbed locally “Lady Ealing”, she was an indefatigable and inspirational activist on issues that were close to her heart.

In the 1970s Corinne was one of the moving forces behind a campaign against redevelopment plans for Ealing Broadway. A subsequent public inquiry found against the council and the developers; what is more, the pressure groups’ alternative scheme was largely adopted, so that when the Ealing Broadway Centre was opened in 1985 by the Queen, it was the result of community engagement. This was the first of Corinne’s many successful battles to preserve the local environment.

Born in Maida Vale, London, to Gertie Phillips (nee Nelken) and her husband, Percy, an insolvency accountant, Corinne was educated at Copthall county grammar school, Mill Hill.

As the daughter of a politically aware Jewish family who had been involved in bringing refugees out of Germany and Austria, she had a commitment to social justice that had been instilled from an early age. She was the first member of her family to go to university, reading economics at Exeter, where she met Charles Templer, a science student. They married in 1954.

On graduation in 1950, Corinne became a social worker in Devon and took a diploma in mental health studies at the London School of Economics. From 1953 to 1960 she was a psychiatric social worker at Maida Vale hospital, resuming her career part-time at St Bernard’s hospital, Ealing, after the birth of her second child in 1960, and leaving in 1963, when expecting her third. She and Charles separated in 1978 and divorced in 1986.

Corinne’s unwavering support for the NHS led to her being appointed a voluntary lay member of the Ealing Family Practitioner Committee in 1974 as well as one of the earliest female non-executive members of the Dental Estimates Board.

She continued to be a driving force in the Walpole Residents’ Association, which she founded in 1968, the Ealing Civic Society and the pressure group Save Ealing’s Centre.

Corinne never stopped working for her Ealing committees and had a wide range of other interests. She obtained a diploma in film studies, one of her passions, in 1990 (with distinction) from the University of London and an MA in cultural studies, awarded in 1994 by Thames Valley University. She was participating in campaigning meetings on Zoom up to her admission to hospital in November 2020, her intellect as sharp as ever.

Corinne is survived by her children, Mark, Hilary and Jason, and her grandchildren, Jade, Carys, Romina, Rhydian and Elena.