Obituary: Hilda Howard - The Jewish Chronicle

A true communal stalwart, Hilda Howard grew up in the small but vibrant Jewish outposts of Wales.

Born in Tsarist Russia in now independent Ukraine, she was brought to Britain as a baby with her older brother, Jack, when her parents, Max (Michal) and Chaya Kurshion, settled in Llanelli, then a thriving South Wales manufacturing centre of tin and steel.

Six months later Max died, aged 30. His 27-year-old widow went from door to door in the surrounding villages, selling drapery goods on tick. She came home every evening to clean and cook.

Hilda was put into the infants section of Market Street Girls’ School at three. She attended cheder at the synagogue run by Rev Isaac Solomon, the community’s jack-of-all-religious-trades.

She vividly remembered hearing Lloyd George speak in Market Hall when she was 11, the year she won a scholarship to grammar school. She did well at school but left at 16 to help her mother.

By now her mother had built up long-standing relations with her customers. She was also known to Jewish collectors for her charity. When Hilda was sent to London to buy goods for the drapery round, one of these collectors introduced her to a Romanian-born prospective father-in-law, a member of Great Garden Street Synagogue in the East End. His son, Bernard Hecht, a chazan trained in Hungary, took High Holy Day services at Hampstead Synagogue.

The couple met in 1939, married in 1940 and spent their honeymoon in Llandudno, the limit of Bernard’s travel freedom in the Second World War.

Classed as an enemy alien, he reported to the police every fortnight, despite serving as a fire watcher and air raid warden. In 1948 he changed his name to Howard, on naturalisation.

Settling in Llandudno, they bought and expanded an existing drapery business. They enjoyed excellent staff relations and a high reputation as they contributed to civic and communal needs.

Hilda believed charity was a two-way affair. She persuaded a Swansea church-goer to donate carpet to the synagogue and a northern Jewish supplier to provide material for the ark’s curtain and Torah mantles.

Her mother died in 1962, aged 75. In 1966 her husband died of cancer, aged 49. In 1975 Hilda sold the business and moved to Stanmore, north west London, to be near her late brother, like her a communal activist.

She threw herself into the local Wizo group and became a formidable fund-raiser, calling on old suppliers. Still in touch with ex-staff, she was told that her old customers wanted her back.

One of her greatest pleasures was to introduce her son, Michael, Home Secretary from 1993-97, to fellow-congregants at Stanmore when he came for his father’s yahrzeit.

She is survived by her son, Michael; daughter, Pamela; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.