5 September - Elwyn Bryant : 1937 - 2025
I attended my first Council meeting
at the invitation of Michael Barnbrook
who died on Valentine’s Day last year and Elwyn Bryant and now he has gone too. His health had been a mystery for two or three years and
every test under the sun failed to reveal the cause. The most obvious symptom
was his loss of weight. However much he ate, he gradually got lighter and
consequently weaker. Earlier this week he was taken into Queen Elizabeth
Hospital where he slowly slipped away yesterday with his family around him.
As the name implies, Elwyn was born into a Welsh mining community but he was having
none of that, he joined the Royal Navy soon after the Korean war ended and spent
most of his seven year’s service in the Far East. He was always pleased to tell
me how he flew in Sunderland flying boats at the invitation of the RAF.
Later in life he became a Convener for the Union of Post Office Workers but he
was as far from being a red hot socialist as it is possible to be.
When chasing officialdom he was like a dog with a bone and fearlessly made phone
calls to people of whom I would steer well clear. If a difficult letter was
needed, Elwyn would fire it off before getting a second opinion on it from his Council pestering friends.
He leaves a wife and, I think, two sons and a step-daughter.
James Brokenshire MP and Elwyn Bryant.
Elwyn lost his final battle with Bexley Council. In recent months he could only get around his own house with the aid of a walking frame but Aspire (Bexley’s contractor) refused to give him a Blue Badge. One technical obstacle after another put in the way. A week ago Elwyn told me he was going to write to his MP Louie French but I suggested it might be a better bet to contact his Councillors, Cameron Smith and Kurtis Christoforides.