Emma Dunning obituary

Emma Dunning. Photograph Maureen John

Emma Dunning, a former mayoress of Hackney, celebrated her 105th birthday just six days before her death this month.

Born in 1908, the daughter of Henry Slater, a drayman, and Catherine Slater, a seamstress, she lived in the borough for virtually her whole life and dictated a slim self-published autobiography when she reached the age of 100.

Among the pivotal episodes in her life was the death of her mother, who died during the Second World War after she was shot by a gunner in a German aircraft in Burdett Road, Bow.

In 1931, aged 23, she married Jack Dunning, a tailor turned shop steward who went on to become a trade unionist and influential member of the local branch of the Labour Party.

In her autobiography Mrs Dunning describes how she decided Jack was “the one for me” after he turned up at the cinema one night in place of another man she had arranged to go out on a date with.

Their wedding, a simple affair, was followed by a trip to Woolworths where their guests bought them presents costing no more than sixpence or thruppence.

The couple had a daughter, Maureen, who Mrs Dunning is survived by along with several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

After the war Mr Dunning became a Hackney councillor as well as a Justice of the Peace and a school governor.

He was so highly thought of that a council estate in Clapton was named after him.

After he was chosen to be the borough’s first citizen in 1967 he was described in a local paper as “a man for the people of the people”.

In her autobiography Mrs Dunning describes how she and her husband were invited to Buckingham Palace with other mayors and mayoresses from the East End.

She wrote: “As soon as the Queen had moved on, the Mayor of Bethnal Green said ‘I’ve had enough of this. Let’s go and get something to eat.’

“We got our chauffeurs to drive the four of us to the fish shop. It certainly turned a few heads.’”

Mrs Dunning worked in a variety of jobs including as a bus attendant, and continued to work after her husband died in 1976.

In the conclusion of her autobiography she wrote: “Even when John had no paid work there was always something to be doing and we just got on with it. We were never rich and money was often very tight, but our simple life was a happy one.”

Her funeral is set to take place tomorrow (Friday).