MAGGIE BOWDEN was a lifelong political campaigner, lawyer and human rights activist devoted to the rights of colonised peoples, women and the struggle for global peace, who came from a working-class background to become the Communist Party’s women’s organiser and a leader of UK anti-colonial movement, Liberation.

She was a solicitor at both Thompsons and then Birnbergs, two leading firms campaigning for trade union and human rights, where alongside important case work, she threw herself into international solidarity and remained active for more than half a century. 

Maggie sadly passed away at home on September 1 2025, one day short of her 95th birthday, surrounded by her immediate family.  

Born in the same house as her mother on September 2 1930 in a mining village in south Wales. She was the only child born to Margaret and Harry Rogers. 

Being born in 1930 during the Great Depression, Maggie’s parents were forced to leave Wales to find work in London. Maggie thrived at school during her primary years, learning to play the piano, which she loved.   

She was happy in London despite witnessing social and racial injustices on buses and in shop windows with slogans like “No dogs, no Irish, no Welsh and no Jews.” In 1939 when World War ll broke out, Maggie was evacuated back to Wales without her parents and placed with a spinster aunt. 

This experience most certainly scarred Maggie as her education was thwarted by Victorian teachers being brought into schools while the younger ones went to help the war effort. Her mother worked hard and spent most of her money on books for Maggie to improve her education, which her aunt thought was a waste, as girls were destined for domestic work.  

Maggie wrote every day to her parents begging them to join her. Another year passed and eventually they were a family again.

She had a large extended family in Wales and was close to her paternal grandparents. Her grandfather was a justice of the peace and a Labour councillor and her family were all staunch Labour members.

They remained in Wales until she was 17 years old when they returned to the Paddington area in London. Her mother paid for her to go to Pitman’s Secretarial School and later she studied law. It was not long after she was introduced to and joined the Young Communist League (which was an education in itself). She later became a member of the Communist Party.

As a young communist in post-war London, Maggie’s political and legal career quickly took off. She joined Thompsons Solicitors where she later met her future husband and fellow communist lawyer, John Bowden.

The practice represented injured workers which advanced the interests of trade unions in the mid-20th century. While Maggie was at Thompson’s, she was actively involved and worked on international issues with Kay Beauchamp (the aunt of the firm’s founders Robin and Brian Thompson), who at the time was the organiser for the Movement for Colonial Freedom (MCF). 

That was the start of Maggie’s involvement with MCF, which included campaigns to free political prisoners in Turkey, the Grenada 17, and work assisting Guyana’s PPP in its struggle against British colonialism, Chile, Cyprus (AKEL) and many other international solidarity campaigns.

In 1970 the MCF movement changed its name to Liberation, and in the ’80s Maggie was elected general secretary. In her inimitable way and with her many contacts, she helped people representing many marginalised liberation struggles gain a voice for their movements at the UN, and in the British Parliament, and continued this work well into her late eighties.

With her indomitable personality, combining warmth, boundless energy and a steely determination, she successfully worked on human rights issues throughout the world. This included supporting the Dalit rights campaign in India, and taking up the cause of the Korean “comfort” women who were raped by Japanese soldiers. 

Liberation had an accreditation with the United Nations, which Maggie along with Jeremy Corbyn fought to keep, and through this she was able to carry out important work at the UN Human Rights Council, which continues today.

Following her years at Thompsons, she moved to Birnberg solicitors to set up the litigation department and in the words of Ben Birnberg “was a bundle of flesh and fight.”

In 1965 Maggie and John had a daughter, Katie. This period was before the introduction of maternity leave but Maggie was determined that it was possible for women to have a successful working and political career as well as a family.

Maggie remained at Birnbergs for over 35 years. During that time, she acted mainly on litigation matters, personal injuries, police corruption, including high-profile racial discrimination cases, and at one point assisting anti-apartheid leader Oliver Tambo and his associates in the African National Congress to find safe houses. The Castanho case was her most successful legal achievement, where at the time in the House of Lords, she won the highest amount in damages awarded to someone who had suffered personal injuries at work and which resulted in a change in the law.

From an early age, Maggie actively campaigned within the British peace movement and joined CND, marching from Turnham Green to Aldermaston in 1958 and in following years remained active in support of nuclear disarmament and later with Stop the War. She also supported and visited the Greenham Common women regularly in the campaign against US cruise missiles.

As a young woman she joined the Women’s Liberation Movement, where she campaigned for women’s rights and worked on issues such as A Woman’s Right to Choose, equal rights, equal pay, free childcare and fought against her namesake, Thatcher the Milk Snatcher. 

In addition, in no particular order, Maggie also fought hard on campaigns such as Free Angela Davis, Anti-Apartheid, the Rosenbergs, racial equalities, Grunwick, Wapping and the miners’ strike. She campaigned for an end to the occupation in Palestine and hoped to see peace for its people. Rob Miller describes Maggie as a stalwart of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC) who contributed much to its development and progress. A separate tribute has been made by CSC.

During the 1980s she became the woman’s organiser of the Communist Party for Great Britain, one of her greatest political achievements. She committed herself wholeheartedly in supporting women both here and internationally.

Maggie retired from Birnbergs in the mid-’90s and poured her heart and soul into continuing her work with Liberation. 

Struggling during the last decade with her disability, she still managed to keep the organisation going by attending the office once a week until a new team took over during the Covid period. Remarkably during Liberation’s 70th anniversary in October 2024 Maggie, aged 94, gave her last ever speech and handed the torch onto younger comrades to go forth and continue their good work wishing them well in their endeavours.

Still enthusiastic about life and thrilled to see people, Maggie continued to read the Morning Star up until this year. She was an inspirational mother, grandmother, great grandmother, friend and comrade. Perhaps her greatest strength was her ability to organise and win people but above all she never took life too seriously.

Maggie is survived by her daughter Katie, grandson Luca, great grandson Mattia and extended family.

Donations to Liberation liberationorg.co.uk/get-involved/join-or-give/#Donate

Funeral to be held at 10am on Tuesday September 23 2025, West London Crematorium, Harrow Road, Kensal Green, London W10 4RA. Parking available or No 18 bus.