Alice Cousins

Married to Alice, Jimmy Milne was also a great music lover, who consciously spread the STUC's influence widely in education and the arts and received an honorary doctorate from Heriot Watt University for such work.
...
Elsie Oliver was born Elsie Cousins in Woolwich on 30th October 1929, the daughter of Jimmy and Alice Cousins.
...
Despite her parents' obvious indulgence and encouragement of this political activity, Elsie encountered more typical parental responses when she arrived home at midnight after a 21 mile YCL hike thinking her parents would be impressed with her dedication.But, she writes, "was I in trouble!"Another, more positive, experience arose with Elsie's first job, as a junior clerk in the Labour Research Department (LRD), where she encountered Noreen Branson (See separate entry for Branson.)

The YCL and South Dagenham Communist Party had premises, called Unity House, near to the Ford plant and many local activities associated with the Party and its allies took place there.Elsie was, like many young people of her generation, active in the burgeoning folk scene of the early 1950s.She joined the Party during the 1960s, in Dagenham, and continued to be active there and then in Southend, on moving to Rayleigh, being a member of the Essex District Committee for a period.
...
Elsie began as a teacher in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham in 1972.An active member of the NUT, Elsie became a Health and Safety Representative in a lively union branch that contained several Communist Party members, including Ann Pocock and Bernard Regan.