Remembering Emily Craddock

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TRIBUTE

Emily Claire Craddock

January, 19 1976 - December 12, 2003

Emily was born in a blizzard, on January 19th 1976. Never one to play with dolls or do anything she considered silly, she was something of a challenge to her teachers at Hampstead Hill School, St Mary's Convent and St Christopher's in Letchworth.

At four years old, when she caught her mother pouring boiling water on a column of ants (as her mother preferred them in the garden, not the kitchen), she protested furiously - her blue eyes blazing under that blonde mop.

At the age of nine she became a Greenpeace supporter and was actively campaigning by the time she was ten, producing a school project on how cutting down trees in the Amazon caused famine in Africa and floods in North India.

Our eco-warrior never lacked for courage. At fifteen she took herself off -alone - to go and work on the Turtle Protection Project on the Island of Zakynthos. While the local Greek people would rather put the profit of hotel building ahead of the preservation of the nesting habit, Emily helped change their views. Those turtles and their nesting grounds are now protected.

Emily loved sports of all kinds, skiing in stunning mountains, scuba diving within that wonderful water-world, and she was passionate about football, outstripping her trainer brothers in skill and eventually playing for Tottenham Ladies. It was a passion she shared with her beloved Dad and the pair was a familiar sight in the west stand at White Hart Lane.

Her sporting prowess was matched by her intellect. Aware of the power of politicians and appalled by war, her dissertation for her politics degree, at Loughborough University, was on the major actors in the Arab- Israeli conflict. The late King Hussein helped her with her research. He kindly remembered how, in Indonesia, this blonde child had introduced herself to tell him his bodyguards' trousers were too long and made them look undignified, then asked him for a dance.

After graduation, Emily first worked for the Lottery's Charity Fund helping charitable organisations achieve the necessary funding for their work. She then worked as a teacher and continued to do so when on leave, sharing her love of this beautiful world with many children.

Emily had an extraordinary ability to communicate with people of all ages and walks in life. She was still in regular, caring contact with her postman Harry, ten years after his retirement. Ems seemed to make an almost instant but lasting bond at a genuine and memorable level with those people she met. She loved animals, could calm the most frightened horses, but considered it wrong to train her dog Georgie.

In 1999, when Emily was in Australia visiting her brother, she saw Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise, docked in Fremantle for repairs after clashes with a Japanese whaler. To be taken seriously, she cut off her long blonde hair (which she had made into wigs for kiddies undergoing chemotherapy), marched up the gangplank and asked for a job - any job. She was THRILLED to have a job at last with Greenpeace - as a garbologist, sorting the rubbish! Whenever and wherever her Greenpeace ship docked, she would go ashore with her football and soon have a game going with the local people - her own personal form of communication with people of all languages. She was regularly seen in the last two months in the Amazon raising a game with the local children.

In the years that followed, her family and many friends followed her via the internet - relieved that by the time Greenpeace actions were posted, the greatest danger was over. She studied hard to learn about the essential equipment on board to eventually become Radio Operator, where she was the smooth voice on the other end of the line calling her fellow campaigners us home after along day chained to an anchor or investigations in the field.

She never missed a chance to brighten others lives. "How are you?" someone would ask her over the line. "All the better for hearing your lovely voice," she would reply.

There are cherished photos of her with Russian children after planting trees in a vast concrete estate, in her protective chemical suit, and with the people of Papua, New Guinea and many more. Everyone held their breath during the whaling campaigns and when she sat in a small dingy in the path of an American missile being tested and during all the bold, courageous campaigns in her four years with Greenpeace.

She was passionate about Greenpeace, so happy to be a part of this organisation which shared her beliefs, was bold enough to go out there and protest; fight for our world and those who cannot fight for themselves.

Emily was a bright, shiny person who brought love and happiness into anyone's life that she touched. Passionate, strong and determined, with a healthy and well-developed sense of natural justice, and a desire to stand-up for those who have no voice, or cannot defend themselves.

Emily died in the most beautiful place on Earth that she had ever seen, and in her years of sailing the world with Greenpeace, she saw much. She wrote of the Amazon in a crew web diary in November of this year:

"When you imbibe all the beauty here you cannot help but pray to Gaia or God to protect this area. This is to me how the Amazon should be, lots of trees overhanging the river and heaving with bounty. Not the deforested naked grasslands we have been seeing too much of during this trip. We need to ensure that this way of life is passed on for more generations to come."

For all of us who remain, and all of us who were touched by Emily's life, her words are emblematic of the love and hope she inspired.