A Rebel Remembered

British political figure Anne Gilman, “a rebel from New Zealand”, has died aged 76. Gilman was born in NZ and attended Canterbury University, where she founded the student magazine, Canta. Gilman’s daughter, Catherine, describes her mother as a “colourful and lively bohemian woman, [who] had been a vegetarian since the age of six” in an obituary for the Guardian. Gilman became mayor of the north London borough of Islington in the 1990s, after many years working for trade unionist and communist groups in the UK. Her mayoral inauguration ceremony featured Maori dancers and her “greening” project for Islington included the planting of numerous native NZ trees.