Respected Salford author and “fearless” campaigner Alice Searle has died on March 3 at the age of 88.
Alice was a big character within the Salford community, being a member of the Friends of Kersal Moor running annual events and talks. She was also a key member in ensuring the situation of a plaque on the moor to commemorate the Chartist rallies.
She was described by her son Richard Searle as a “socialist, feminist and all round ‘difficult woman’.”
Alice was also a director of the Mary Burns Community Group, which published the award-winning Salford Star and created the Bury New Road Heritage project.
She also wrote two sold-out books on Kersal Moor which, when Moor Lane stadium was expanded, led the community to win concessions from Salford City Football Club.
Objecting on behalf of Friends of Kersal Moor, Alice gave Neville a bag full of rubbish after claiming that the increased capacity will also increase the amount of litter in the area.
Richard said: “She campaigned about all sorts, she was fearless, could organise wherever she’d find herself and she continued this right up to during Covid, banging pots and pans in the streets.”
Alice was also a part of the creation of Agecroft colliery memorial on Agecroft Road in Salford.
However, before coming to Salford, Alice travelled the world on her own, living in Fiji and South Africa.
She was a massive advocate for feminism, socialism, environmentalism and humanity. Initiating the Pin Project to help the children of AIDS victims in South Africa and teaching all over the Pacific.
Alice’s son Clive Searle said: “Those who knew Alice would know that, for her, there was no such thing as the ‘last word’, that was only the first word of the next conversation.”
Alice was born in Chadderton in 1936 before she and her brother were evacuated to Wales during the war with their mother, who owned a pub called the Red Lion.
Richard described how the pub was shot to pieces by the British army due to a mistake on the local rifle range. The family were in the pub when it happened, and the family still have the bullets.
Alice then graduated from Southampton University with a degree in Economics. She also marched against the Suez campaign.
Crowned as Cowes Carnival Queen in 1957, she then met her partner and trained to be a teacher.
Alice is survived by seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren and bequeathed her body to a medical school. She will therefore be educating the medical undergraduates for the next two years, after saying she “wanted to help train the next generation of NHS doctors.”
Alice’s work does not stop there however, during lockdown she wrote a weekly diary published on the Salford Star website. This has been collected together and made into a free 56-page booklet, Salford Isolationland. It is being published for the fifth anniversary of lockdown.
Salford City Councillor John Warmisham said: “This is a piece of Salford’s social history and gives a real insight into Alice’s thoughts whilst in lockdown. A fascinating read.”
The booklet will be available to read in all Salford Libraries and free to pick up in community spaces. A shortened online version is available here.
Former Salford Star editor Stephen Kingston said: “This booklet is a fitting tribute to Alice, an incredible, amazing woman who never shied away from doing what was right for the community.”
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