Obituary: Rob Dawber (original) (raw)

Rob Dawber, who was emerging as a writer after his years as a railwayman, has died aged 45. The cause was mesothelioma, a cancer contracted while working with asbestos on the railways. Last year, he won a significant victory in establishing his employers' culpability for his illness.

Rob was educated at Wath-upon-Dearne grammar school in South Yorkshire, and read politics and English at Leicester University. He decided against the expected middle-class career, in place of which he took a job on the railways. This was partly because of his political commitment; Rob was of that generation of socialists who were inspired by the trade union struggles of the 1970s. Also, as he said, he wanted to work alongside people he liked.

For 18 years, he was a rail worker and trade union activist. He became a branch secretary for the National Union of Railwaymen, and wrote for Socialist Organiser and Off The Rails, a bulletin for rail workers. His Fat Controller column mercilessly lampooned the rail managers who squandered the opportunities of the nationalised industries.

During the miners' strike, Rob toured signal boxes run by rail workers who supported the strike, to maintain solidarity with the miners. Later, he stood as presidential candidate for the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, to oppose privatisation and the consequent risks to health and safety.

When privatisation finally came, Rob was made redundant. As a militant, his prospects in Sheffield, where so many jobs had disappeared, were not good. So he decided to write. His first script, which I was lucky enough to be sent, was full of life, characters and stories. It was about the break-up of the railways into private companies and sub-contractors.

A week after he was commissioned to develop his original material, Rob was given the shattering news that he was terminally ill. He had fought all his life against the undermining of trade unions and the impact that had on health and safety. Ironically, he was to pay a higher price than most. With others, he had been given the job of breaking up troughs and other items, known by British Rail to contain asbestos, in a decrepit shed with an asbestos roof. The mesothelioma which resulted lay dormant for nearly 20 years until it was diagnosed in December 1998, when Rob was 42.

Rob's reaction was to fight it to the end, and get on with what mattered to him. Furious with the medics for their lack of optimism, he decided "to outlive you all". He searched for treatments throughout the world, and prepared to try the most aggressive therapies that were still in their infancy. His family and friends set up the Rob Dawber Mesothelioma Campaign to fund any possible treatment abroad, and to expose the disease as one which affects working people doing dirty jobs without adequate protection.

Rob's fight also resulted in a landmark court judgment against the residual rail company left after privatisation. It was the first time that an employer was found liable for intermittent exposure out of doors, primarily to white asbestos. An internal memo revealed that, although workers were being routinely exposed to lethal asbestos, it would be too expensive to remove it all or educate them in ways of handling it. The substantial damages went to the campaign.

Two anniversaries of his diagnosis were celebrated, and Rob's family and friends began to believe that perhaps he could defy this most crushing of diseases through his formidable willpower. He took great delight in seeing his film completed, and became the centre of much laughter on the set. Despite failing health, he refused to retreat from political life. He allowed his name to go forward as a possible parliamentary candidate for the newly-created Socialist Alliance.

I never heard him express bitterness or self-pity. His strength, good humour and integrity were an inspiration to all who knew him. He was devoted to his wife, Lindsey, and his daughters, Chloe and Eve, from his first marriage, to Ellen, were the light of his life. Working people have lost a champion.