James Caldwell obituary

My father, James Caldwell, who has died aged 93, was a committed member of the Labour party and for some years the political agent for Shirley Williams, when she was MP for Hertford and Stevenage (1974-79).

He was born in Belfast, where he was cared for by the Barnardos charity from the age of seven, after spending his early years with an informal adoptive mother. He lived in a number of homes around the UK before going to the Watts Naval Training school, in Norfolk, where boys from Barnardos learned seamanship, and joining HMS Ganges.