Helen Stirling Eadie was born in Stenhousemuir in 1947. The youngest of four children, she was particularly doted on by her two big brothers, Andrew and Tom and had a happy childhood, if not a particularly affluent one. An elder sister unfortunately died before Helen was born.
Her schooling was robust but fairly rudimentary and she often remarked to me that she wished that her formal education had of been of a higher standard. This was perhaps one of her motivations to push for better education for all. Helen was a lifelong learner and perhaps is one of the only people that had studied at both the London School of Economics and the Fife Women’s Technology Centre.
Her first job was in a laundry. It did not last that long as she was dismissed for having the temerity to attempt to form a union for the exclusively female workforce. Her axing did not beat her down – it just made her even more determined to help others, particularly in the workplace. Her Trades Union background came from her father who was a shop-steward in the precursor union to the GMB but she was her own woman and found her own ways to support those who needed help. Helen did not stick to a playbook – she simply wrote her own.
Helen’s style in dealing with problems was charming and delicate. She listened which is a skill in itself and always had a welcoming smile which gave people confidence to open up to her.
Often people will come into an advice surgery and talk about one matter but Helen could always get to the root of the issue. This was not a skill she picked up on the way but was part of her natural personality.
Helen married her ‘Bobby’, Bob Eadie in 1967. They had met at a STUC Summer School at St Andrews and he was smitten. Photos of the young pair show a couple deeply in love, Helen beaming her usual smile and Bob resplendent in denim. Their first daughter was born in 1970 and within just a few years the young Fiona was already a veteran of many protest marches and pickets sometimes even wearing a poncho. It was the 1970s we must remember.
Many others have written of Helen’s journey from the Trades Unions, through to campaigning for the ill-fated ‘Win with Jim’ campaign in 1979. In fact, if Jim Callaghan had of listened to Helen and her father-in-law, the late Alex Eadie, former MP for Midlothian and gone to the country earlier, Margaret Thatcher might have been a mere footnote in Tory Party history.
It was after that election that the young family then living in East Dulwich in South East London decided that Scotland was again calling. They finally settled in Dalgety Bay in Fife and have remained there ever since.
Helen left a legacy in London in the shape of a nursery. The area where she lived had no nursery provision and along with other mums she set up a co-operative nursery. Gumboots Community Nursery is still around today and is still a not for profit organisation caring for local children. Helen was a lifelong co-operator who did not just talk policy, she actually made things happen.
Back in Scotland, Helen not only had a second daughter, Jemma, she also was elected to Fife Council. However, even before taking on that first elected role had already helped set up West Fife Enterprise. In an area ravaged by the worst excesses of Thatcherism she brought the same entrepreneurial approach she had taken at the London nursery and secured huge tranches of funding to provide training opportunity and jobs for folk in the West Fife Villages.
Helen’s career at Fife Council saw her take on many briefs but at Transport she flourished. The railway station at Dalgety Bay – “no-one will use it,” they said. It is now hugely popular and Helen was right to push so hard for it. She delivered top notch cycling facilities long before the cycling boom had even been thought of and understood the key significance of the Forth Road Bridge to economic prosperity for the region. The recurring theme of Helen’s political career is that she often saw things so far in advance that they may have appeared out-of-kilter at the time. She was so often well ahead of the curve but never behind it.
With the establishment of the Scottish Parliament by Labour in 1999 came another opportunity and Helen was selected to be the candidate for Dunfermline East. She served in that seat and its successor constituency of Cowdenbeath until her death. In that time she took on literally thousands of cases and that was her focus and passion.
Other parliamentarians may have been noted for a succession of witty putdowns or barnstorming speeches in the chamber, Helen instead worked on helping people and doing the right thing by the folk who elected her.
Helen could not walk into a shop anywhere in the constituency without someone recognising her. Often a trip out with me and her grandchildren would be curtailed by a constituent either asking for help or most times just saying thank-you for her support on a case.
In the Labour bloodbath of 2011, when a yellow tide of SNP MSPs stormed over the political map of Scotland, Helen’s constituency was the last bastion of socialism north of the Forth. I firmly contend it was her total focus on helping her constituents that meant her seat was not lost.
Helen had a number of causes and issues that she cared about. Her knowledge of European issues shone and her final motion in the Scottish Parliament called for a solidification of the relationship between Bulgaria and Scotland. She knew first hand that strong relationships between nations could build trust and prosperity and she worked to support that.
Helen also supported numerous health charities and I think was happiest when serving on the Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament.
Between 2008 and 20011 I worked at the Parliament for the Labour Group of MSPs and we often travelled to work together. What struck me was that after 13 years of service at Holyrood she was still so enthusiastic about her job. Every journey was peppered with reminders and to-do’s.
Helen was noted for having only a passing acquaintance to punctuality. This was not from rudeness but the fact her life was a series of plates that she had to keep spinning around. When she came ten minutes late to a meeting it was usually because she had been dealing with something that might have been able to keep but because it was a constituent she would never just leave it to chance.
After the 2011 election I worked part-time for Helen and had the best political education anyone could hope for. I have worked around politics since 1994 as a journalist, press officer and advisor but my ‘apprenticeship’ with Helen taught the value of really listening not just making notes. She also taught me to always believe a constituent and never give up on a case.
On a personal level, Helen was like a second mum to me. When Fiona told Helen about meeting me I was described as English, blond-haired and a BBC journalist. But Fiona assured her; “It’s okay … he’s Labour.” That was good enough for Helen and I was warmly welcomed into her and Bob’s home and then into the family when I moved to Scotland to get married in 1999.
Helen was so proud of both her daughters Fiona and Jemma. Both women now work for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service as Fiscal Deputes and I have rarely seen anyone so utterly delighted as Helen when Jemma got her post with the service quite recently.
Helen was a brilliant grandma to our three boys and I remember calling her when Alex, our eldest boy was born before dawn in April 2010. I had first tried calling the house but there was no reply. I then called her mobile which was picked up first ring.
I told her she was a grandmother and she first whooped with joy and then announced she was coming into the hospital in Kirkcaldy. When will you arrive I ventured? I’m outside now she responded. Helen and Bob had frozen in the car all night to await their first grandchild.
Helen gave her time freely to all and loved many people and they responded so positively to her. When she walked through the Parliament she always said hello to people when others perhaps were more absorbed in other matters.
She was a great communicator, campaigner, advocate for change and the most genuinely kind person I have ever met. In the sometimes venal world of politics she was a beacon of decency and she proved it is possible to be a good person and still be able to make positive things happen.
Gavin Yates is Helen’s son-in-law, a local Councillor in Fife and former Labour advisor at Holyrood.
Gavin Yates 