BERNARD BRETT

Anne Rouse helped Bernard in the Association office for the last three years of his life and paints an intimate picture of his life and contribution to the association. Anne included this as part of an address to the CQHA AGM on 27th September, 2005.

Bernard Brett was one of the concerned group of Colchester people, mainly Quakers, who wanted to do something practicial to help with homelessness, and they came together to found the Association. You could say that Bernard was the public face of the Association. Everybody in Clochester at least knew who he was, and he knew very many people, waving and smiling as he was pushed around town by his helpers.

Bernard was born in Belfast in 1935 and was severely disabled by cerebral palsy. He was confined to a wheeelchair, unable to speak at all or to eat normally. He had restricted use of one hand, his right hand, and using the forefinger he could type slowly on his electronic typewriter, and he often communicated with people in this way. but his chief means of communication was his letter board, set out like a a QWERTY trypewriter keyboard. By pointing at the letters he spelt out what he wanted to say. Although there was new technology available he determindedly stuck with this basic, but very effective, method of communication - when 'talking' to people he liked the fact that he was in control of the letter board which gave him an advantage.

Reading the board took a certain amount of practice and his finger would dart about rapidly, while the reader tried to get it right, or at least keep up. He often took shortcuts when speaking, especially on the 'phone (he had an audiophone), but he was just as likely to to spell out 'all things being considered, yes' or 'under the circumstances, no'  instead of a plain yes or no. This was part of the challenge, and he enjoyed challenging people.

For the first 20 years of his life, Bernard lived near Belfast in a highly supportive family. A London specialist told his parents that he was mentally handicapped, but they wouldn't accept this and slowly they taught him to read which opened up the world for him. His parents had the inspired idea of arranging for students from Queens University, Belfast to visit him and take him out, and this also enlarged his world.

Later his family helped him to achieve his ambitiion to live more independently and his first move, in 1955, brought him to Essex, to a residential home in Kelvedon. But he was determined to lead as independent a life as was possible given his disabilities and in 1964 his parents helped him to buy a large house in Creffield Road in Colchester. It was then that he began to get involved with homeless people by letting rooms to young people in need of accommodation. In addition to paying rent these tenants took turns at helping him with his daily needs. This sounds a perfect arrangement but it had its drawbacks - many of the tenants were very young and not very responsibile (this is an understatement) - apart from the difficulties of getting them to pay rent, there could be problems with the care. For example, I remember one girl, lovely looking but not very grown up, getting Bernard onto the commode and then going out to the Dorothy Perkins sale. She came back with a long red coat and was completely thrilled with her bargain and entirely oblivious to Bernard's predicament. He was pretty cross at being abandoned, stabbing his fingers on the board and telling her off - he could tell people offf very effectively! Fortunately Bernard also had the help of Community Service Volunteers who were usually a  good deal more responsible than most of the tenants, which was just as well considering the sort of situation I've just described.

    42 Creffield Road, Colchester Bernard's home and CAHA office for a while

Bernard was  campaigner. If he saw an injustice he would tackle it head on. Bernard's work was recognised by the award of an MBE in 1973. He had Quakerly hestitations in accepting the honour, but he did so because he felt it would be an encouragement to other disabled people. And amid all his work he managed to attend Essex University and gain an MA in Social Policy and Administration, an enormous acheivement when you consider his disabilities and the fact that he had to rely entirely on other people for everything he did and everywhere he wanted to go. For transport he had a large campervan with an hydraulic lift at the back, and he traveled all over the place in it. Each year he visited Belfast and the ecumenical Corrymeela Community there, bringing his gift for friendship and his concern for peace.

But it was Bernard's work with the Association which was central to his life, and he was central to the Association and to the problems of homelessness in Colchester. Bernard would always make himself available to give housing advice, with people often coming to see him quite late at night, and this was the beginning of all the advice work done by the Association later on. He managed to build up a network of contacts to help homeless people - he became quite a fixer and people would come to him knowing that he would try to offer practical help without being judgmental. His bedroom cum living room became the busy office of the Association. It was here that everything happened - where we had all our meetings, where homeless families and single people came for help and advice.

Bernard was remarkable person, hugely determined as you can see from his nurmerous achievements in the face of what most people would consider to be insuperable disabilities; he was challenging, full of ideas which he seemed to be able to persuade people to carry through, very funny and engaging and with a marvelous sense of humour and a great gift for friendship.

Bernard had a deep Christian faith which I think was source of strength to him when he went through the times of depression which were inevitable in his situation. He was a very ecumencial Quaker, attending Anglican, Catholic and Greek Orthodox Services. He died unexpectedly in 1982 at the early age of 47, and at his memorial service the Bishop gave the address, a Catholic priest led the prayers and the time of silence was introduced by a Quaker.

Con Rendell helped his dad, Denys Rendell, as the Association's handy man but as a child he also helped Bernard as a volunteer and recalls;

'I first met Bernard when I was a child; he was one of the most remarkable people I have ever known. With his lively mind, and sparkling wit, he often brought humour to difficult situations. I had a clear window into his life in 1977. I looked after him for three weeks for twelve hours a day. This was quite challenging for me, because I had to be his voice, and being dyslexic I am a slow reader. Homeless people would arrive at his door after traipsing around town all day, having been directed from one office to another to another, and then back to the one they had started from. He would ask them to take the weight off their feet, listen to their stories, make sure they had somewhere to sleep for the night, and help them find somewhere to live. He had a great passion for travelling, and we had some memorable adventures together. We went to a talk by Mother Theresa. On one occasion, I took him across London on the Underground, wheel chairs are not officially allowed, but Bernard liked to push at the boundaries of what was possible. One of the many things he organised was a demonstration march around London, with MPs pushing disabled people. This ended at 10 Downing Street, where he handed the Prime Minister a model of a skeleton in a wheel chair. This was to illustrate the effect of the latest government policy concerning disabled people’s living allowance. '

He was never able to speak, walk or use more than one hand . His prodigious memory helped to ensure that accurate records were kept of meetings.  He also ran an Adventure Playground Association in Colchester Town. 

From his base in Creffield Road, Bernard began working for the needs and rights of disabled people, starting a branch of the Disablement Income Group and getting involved with disability issues nationally, travelling to meetings (sometimes by train, which meant in the Guard's Van with the parcels, post bags, bicycles and racing pigeons - a pretty undignified way to travel). He lobbied and talked to politicians and wrote speeches which would be read for him by his helper. He would take up a cause or an injustice and fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves.

Of course disability issues were an obvious area of involvement for him, but he also took on the problems of homeless people and other community projects such as the setting up of an adventure playground.