Courageous campaigner - Winifred Tumim - dies suddenly

Winifred Letitia Tumim died suddenly last week aged 73. Best known for her work on the reform of the management of charities and her campaign for the reform of charity law Winifred Tumim had a long and successful portfolio career in the voluntary and public sectors.

Two of her three daughters were born seriously deaf and this led to her involvement in deaf issues for many years. She chaired the RNID, (from 1985-1992), and held a number of health-related positions including membership of ethics committees and non-executive director of a community health trust. She also had an interest in special education and sat on the first Warnock Committee, the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children.

Winifred was chair of the Forum on Children and Violence, set up in the aftermath of the murder in 1993 of James Bulger, which campaigned to look at the causes of violence in children. And from 2000 was chair of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy and the government’s advisor on teenage pregnancy.

She was the Chairman of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations for six years between 1996 and 2001 and also chaired the NCVO/Charity Commission working group that published the On Trust Report, setting in motion many initiatives for improving the governance of charities. At the NCVO she chaired the working party on Charity Law that eventually led to the recent Charities Act; and the introduction of the overarching Public Benefit Test. She was, for ten years, a member of the General Medical Council and an adjudicator appointed by the Council.

Winifred was made a CBE for services to the voluntary sector in December 2002.

Her husband, Sir Stephen Tumin, died in 2003.

Winifred Tumin exemplified the qualities of an outstanding trustee. Courageous and committed, Winifred set her sights on the big goals that would make a difference to peoples lives. She will be greatly missed and our sympathy go to her family at this time.
 
Rodney Buse
Chair CTN