My mother, Glenys Thomas, who has died aged 87, devoted her life to helping others and challenging injustice in many forms. For more than 50 years she lived in Birmingham, where in the 1970s and 80s she taught and trained social workers at Selly Oak College, specialising in racism awareness and women’s studies. She was also a trustee of Martineau Gardens, the therapeutic community charity in Edgbaston.
Born on a farm in Hampden, in the Cotswolds, Glenys was the daughter of Alice (nee Smith), who came from a family of non-conformist Liberals; her father, Gordon, hailed from north Wales. Both parents were equally determined that all three of their daughters should have opportunities. At Westwood’s grammar school in Northleach, Glenys was the only girl taking science, a path chosen with medicine in mind, but she preferred people to anatomy and went on to study psychology at Reading University.
