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He was battling to the very end, a man who spent decades defending the NHS and workers’ rights, and campaigning for pensioners’ causes.

Days before his death on Sunday at the age of 94, George Durack was making his final notes as chairman of Islington Pensioners For­um in defence of his close friend Jeremy Corbyn, who had visited him in his last days in a hospice.

Pensioners Forum secretary Dot Gibson said: “It’s quite poignant that they were his last words.”
George was born in Islington in 1924, the son of George, a merchant seaman, and Teresa, a milliner. He lived in the “slum dwellings” of Beaconsfield Buildings on the Caledonian Road before spending several years on the Kent coast living with a family friend.

Aged eight, he moved back to Islington, attending York Road Junior School, Gifford Street Senior School and, at the age of 14, leaving to be­come a messenger boy for Daily Sketch newspaper.

George worked as a plumber before joining the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade in 1942 and transferring to the 7th Armour­ed Division – known as the “Desert Rats”.
After the war, he worked as a postman in Hampstead from 1956 to 1989, delivering mail to Labour figures Hugh Gaitskell and Michael Foot among others. “Gaitskell was a decent man but tended to look down his nose a bit,” George said in 2015. “But Michael Foot was a jolly man and real gentleman. He was an inspiration.”

He met his future wife Vera at Morgan School of Dancing in Camden Road.

Daughter Elaine said her dad’s interest in politics started as a postman when he joined the Communication Workers Union, where general secretary Dave Ward remembered him as making a “wonderful contribution” to people’s lives.

“Through the union and Labour Party and people he came across, where he saw there was any injustice he took up that cause,” said Elaine.

She said he put his “heart and soul” into being a councillor in 1990 after retiring. “He saw it as a proper job and devoted a lot of time to it and helped a lot of people,” she said.

George saw his fair share of controversy – he refused to pay Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax. Both he and his daughter ended up in Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. “For him it was one of the most unfair things,” said Elaine.

In 2016, George gained unexpected publicity when he was cropped out of a photograph of him walking alongside Jeremy Corbyn at a Remembrance service parade.

Newspapers ran stories accusing Corbyn of dancing – when in fact, as George explained, they were in conversation.

Elaine recalled: “He said [about the stories]: ‘I’m a war veteran, how could you do that to me?’ It was probably one of the big­gest insults he’d ever had.

“Their friendship meant a lot to both of them.”

She added about her father: “He was great fun as a dad. He will be remembered as a compassionate man, a man who had time for people.”

In 2004, he became chair of the Pensioners Forum, a position he held until he died, sharing it with Bob Collins in recent years. He was given the Freedom of the Borough in 2015 in recognition of his work.

Pensioners Forum ass­istant secretary Annette Thomas said: “He could rage about what was being done to pensioners and the world generally, but he was also very caring.”

Phil Kelly, who served as a councillor through the 1980s and 90s, said: “No one could be un­aware of the views of pensioners. He made sure issues were never forgotten.”

Paying tribute to his friend, Mr Corbyn said: “George saw the horrors of war first-hand and dedicated his life to peace. He saw injustice and dedicated his life to changing it through his union, through the Labour Party and through his work as a councillor.

“I went to see him on Saturday in Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, a place where he used to deliver letters. As I left he gave me a lovely smile and a message of solidarity.”

George, who lived in Wyndham Crescent, Tuf­nell Park, is survived by Elaine, niece and neph­ews David, Mark, Julie and Michael and great-niece and nephews Glenn, Louise, Zoe, Connor and Guy.

A date has yet to be set for his funeral.