MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Founder of HMS Sheffield Falklands Fund Dies

The Lord Mayor of Sheffield who founded a fund to help families of the twenty men of the destroyer HMS Sheffield killed in the 1982 Falklands Conflict, has died in England, aged 96. Enid Hattersley, mother of the Labour politician, Lord Hattersley, was Lord Mayor of the city from 1981 to 1982, and established a close rapport with HMS Sheffield before she became famous as the first of the Task Force warships to be sunk -- by an exocet missile on May 4th.

Only months before, Mrs Hattersley had hosted a dinner for the destroyer's entire crew in Sheffield Town Hall. When news of her sinking reached Sheffield, the Lord Mayor immediately established a fund to help the families of the bereaved. Though 77 and nearing the end of her term in office, she herself went around the city herself, energetically collecting money. She became nationally well-known as the representative of a city in mourning.

She served for forty years on Sheffield City Council, giving her son the urge to become a politician. Roy Hattersley, a prolific writer and journalist, has been a Member of Parliament for nearly forty years, first in the House of Commons and now in the House of Lords.

By coincidence, he was a Minister of State in both the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence in the Labour Governments preceding the Falklands Conflict, and was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.

Harold Briley, London