Joan Ramelson, who has died aged 91, was a lifelong campaigner for progressive causes.

Widowed at the age of 30 with three young children, she remarried only to be widowed again when aged 44.

Then living in Leeds, where she joined the Communist Party, she continued full-time work with au pair childcare help.

She worked her way up to become a manager at a large department store.

As the children grew more independent Joan sought to further her education and improve her qualifications.

She gained a place at Leeds University and qualified as a child welfare officer in the early 1960s.

By this time her children had left home and Joan moved to London to take a job with Westminster council as a social worker.

She was soon promoted to become a senior social worker responsible for supervising children's homes across the borough.

In 1969 Joan married Bert Ramelson, the Communist Party's national industrial organiser.

They set up home in the Lewisham area and both became activists in the Sydenham branch of the party.

Joan's party work mainly concerned fundraising activities for both the party and the Morning Star as well as driving Bert to events and meetings in the evenings and weekends.

The marriage was an extremely close one from which both partners took great strength.

Joan had a rewarding job which she loved. Bert became part of a close-knit extended family, all of whom took great pleasure in Joan's happiness and Bert's support.

Bert retired as national industrial organiser in 1977 but continued to work in various roles for the party.

But during the 1980s his health deteriorated and Joan decided to take early retirement in order to look after him.

This enabled Bert to sustain his political activity right up to his death in 1994.

As Joan explained in an interview: "I would not have had it any other way. I could see that Bert remained such an important figure in the labour movement and he was such a lovely man and companion."

After his death Ramelson's doctor told Joan: "You kept him alive and active for the last 10 years."

Shortly after Bert's death Joan moved to Whitstable in Kent. She worked part-time in an Oxfam shop for a number of years before her own health began to deteriorate.

When well into her 80s she was no longer able to live a fully independent life and moved into a care home.

To many Joan was a wonderful friend and companion whose vivacious personality was allied to a deep commitment to social justice and equality.

Many of her unpublished poems were centred on the need for world peace and the struggle to end poverty.

She is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

TOM SIBLEY