FEATURE Mike Pentelow
Crowds pay tribute to and celebrate the life of ‘the man who put social into socialism’ – the much beloved Mike Pentelow
Friends, journalists and union colleagues came together to
celebrate the life of former Landworker editor Mike Pentelow, at the end of May, just pipping the Queen’s platinum jubillee celebrations. Mike, one of Covid’s first victims, died on 1 April 2020, but his army of admirers had to wait two years, by dint of the pandemic to pay their tributes.
House-full notices went up in London’s Fitzroy Square opened up by local residents paying their own tributes to Mike's community activism. (His brilliantly researched book Characters of Fitzrovia chronicled his deep knowledge of the area.) Said to be ‘the man who put the social into socialism’ Mike was known for leading tours like the Karl Marx pub crawl, detailing watering holes where the master of materialism had sunk a pint or two on the way back from the British Museum.
Pentelow made his name as a superb journalist on the Thurrock Gazette, Morning Star and T&G Record, going
on to edit the Landworker, Tideway, Stand By Me Club Bulletin, Fitzrovia News and Country Standard. A lifelong Communist, Mike also
penned a number of books including Norfolk Red all about NUAAW and T&G giant Wilf Page. So it was good
to see Mike Ward, Tony Gould and Penny Morley, pillars of rural trade unionism in the assembly.
For nearly 20 years Mike got to know and report on the exploits of union members across every industry and region. He could tease a story out of anybody, head slightly inclined as he jotted gems into his ever-present noteboook – often finding the convivial setting of a pub encouraging that extra dimension to the tale.
A talented and complete professional at his job, Mike was also a great instigator of social activities including
20 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2022
the Essex Ramblers, trips to Tolpuddle and Burston and supporting the hornets of Watford. The celebrations included music from a local band and pianist. Tributes were paid to Mike in word and song with the crowd joining in an emotional Tom Paxton song, Rambling Boy.
Top of the pops, however was Ben E King’s Stand By Me. A trade unionist to the core, Mike loved the song as it embodied all that is best in solidarity among workers in struggle. A founder
member of the International Stand By Me Club, as joint world president he had collected over 300 versions of the song ranging from the Northumbrian Pipes to songsters John Lennon and Muhammad Ali.
As the song goes, ‘Whenever you're in trouble, won't you stand by me.’ Mike did, for so many... and now we stand by the memory of an extraordinary and unassuming man, who enriched us all.
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