Mike Hall obituary

My first boss, Mike Hall, who has died aged 69, helped to found Simon House in Oxford in the 1960s. Everyone was welcome at this night shelter for the homeless, whatever their condition. Then, in the 1970s, he successfully campaigned for a new £1m hostel to be built in Paradise Street.

Mike was brought up in Salford. His father, Jack, a docker and Labour councillor, died when Mike was 10, and his mother, Elizabeth, worked as a dinner lady and playground supervisor to support her two sons, before running an off-licence.