Interview with Samuel and Belle Westhead

• Reference:GB 249 SOHC 6/20
• Dates of Creation:1 April 2004
• Name of Creator:
  Rafeek, Neil Christopher, 1960-2006, oral historian, socialist
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  1 MS Word file

• Scope and Content

  Neil Rafeek in conversation with Samuel and Belle Westhead, Haswell, Co. Durham, 1 April 2004.
  - transcript
  Interview C37.

• Administrative / Biographical History

  Neil Rafeek was born in London, the middle of three brothers. His father Taureq Rafeek was a town planner and the family regularly moved with his work. From London they moved to Bristol, then Edinburgh (where Neil attended primary school), then Sunderland. Neil Rafeek's experience at secondary school there prevented him from successfully completing his early education. Leaving with just one O-level, he entered the building trade to train as a bricklayer. Subsequently he enrolled at the University of Strathclyde as a mature student and went on to do a PhD on women in the Communist party in Scotland 1920-1991 (1998). It was the first oral history based PhD awarded in the Department of History. Rafeek actively helped to build, manage and run the Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) at Strathclyde.

• Access Information

  No access restrictions.

• Note

  Neil Rafeek was born in London, the middle of three brothers. His father Taureq Rafeek was a town planner and the family regularly moved with his work. From London they moved to Bristol, then Edinburgh (where Neil attended primary school), then Sunderland. Neil Rafeek's experience at secondary school there prevented him from successfully completing his early education. Leaving with just one O-level, he entered the building trade to train as a bricklayer. Subsequently he enrolled at the University of Strathclyde as a mature student and went on to do a PhD on women in the Communist party in Scotland 1920-1991 (1998). It was the first oral history based PhD awarded in the Department of History. Rafeek actively helped to build, manage and run the Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) at Strathclyde.

• Archivist's Note

  Created by Anna-K Mayer, 9 February 2017

  Consent form missing. Name revealed in appendix of McIvor & Johnston 2007, according to which all of the interviews in that project were "archived for public access in the Scottish Oral History Centre [etc]"/akm February 2017

• Additional Information

  published