Harry's obituary in The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/may/22/schools.uk
Harry was born in the city centre, in the slums, moving West due to necessity, to extended observant Jewish relatives who lived in one of the, homes fit for heroes council houses, which were sheer luxury in comparison to the slums. His father was a secular Jew/Yorkshireman, had many jobs, I was told he sold ice creams from a dynamo powered pack on back of his bicycle, he was called up during ww2 to serve with the RAF on the homefront, he was a bus conductor with East Yorkshire Motors where he was also union rep, and then was a clerical worker, my aunt said she had no knowledge of their father ever being a shoemaker. His paternal grandad was a UK destination immigrant tailor from Minsk, grandma from Latvia. First part of the following article has good explanation on that generations arrival in Hull: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3vx9q1kqKtzFhmDYcssDsdR/
from-russia-with-love-a-migration-story
Harry's mother, a practicing Christian from Yorkshire,who he told me he had happy memories of her singing to him by the fireplace, her grandfather was David Reynard Robinson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrago,_Hornsea
Harry was a thoughtful intellectual who tended to avoid labels. He avoided small scale deflective religious and secterian factionalisms and I'm not sure he'd have called himself an anti zionist but he and his immediate family were definitely critical of oppressive policies and regimes, and opposed brutalisation of Palestinian's, supporting the two state solution and labour, housing and all other human rights and equalities. Whilst appreciating diversity he was secular, or as one of my siblings humorously noted, he was a devout atheist.
Anna
15/10/2026
