Everyone who has read his work or who cares about social justice will have been shocked and saddened by Peter’s death. Because the emphasis of much of his recent research was on poverty, many outside of gerontological circles will not recognise him as one of the founders of our discipline. In fact his first published work, in Cambridge Varsity, in 1948 was ‘Old Age and Industry’. He is better known as a sociologist of later life, of course, for the four volumes published between 1957 and 1968: The Family Life of Old People, The Last Refuge, The Aged in the Welfare State and Old People in Three Industrial Societies. By any standards this is a magnificent corpus that any of us would be proud to have authored. All of them stand the test of time, as befits path-breaking research, and all of them should be required reading to give students a thorough grounding in social gerontology.

No account of Peter Townsend’s career, even a brief one such as this, can omit his role as a campaigner because he was a public intellectual to his bones. He believed passionately not only in the force of truth, based on rigorous research, but also in the duty of the intellectual to confront power with it. Again, however, his long term association with the Child Poverty Action Group may obscure his lifelong dedication to ageing policy issues. He campaigned for better pensions in the 1960s and 1970s, highlighted poverty in old age to a government that denied it and the special needs of disabled older people in the 1980s and, in the 1990s, battled with the New Labour Government to try to get it to target poverty in old age and introduce a citizens pension.

I must declare a personal interest: I have been inspired by Peter, influenced greatly by his work over the entire course of my career, starting as a student, and constantly in awe of his analytical skills and craftsmanship. I am not alone, many others have been inspired or influenced in other positive ways by his work, be they researchers, practitioners or policy makers. Therefore, as a tribute to his life, Judith Phillips and I asked BSG members to send us their own responses to this remarkable person’s life and work and some of these are included below. There are other tributes too that you might want to refer to,

Bristol University, http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/news/2009/18.html

obituaries in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun/09/obituary-peter-townsend

The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6473210.ece

and The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-peter-townsend-campaigner-for-social-justice-who-cofounded-the-child-poverty-action-group-1704169.html

There will be a memorial service in London in October, a collection of his work published by Policy Press and a festschrift about him and his work.

Further tributes:

I know of no sociologist who has had such a profound influence upon my students and me over the past 50 years than Peter Townsend.  The whole academic community and indeed the social care and welfare agencies and vast numbers of users throughout the global academic and social care community in so many countries will share in grieving his departure. Professor Peter Townsend was able to identify in his talks and research the major social concerns affecting oppressed groups of people.  We will all miss him, but at the same time we have much to celebrate – his time with us and his commitment and accomplishments.

George Giarchi, Plymouth

I am sorry to learn of Peter's passing but he did apparently have a fulfilled life. I had read and been strongly influenced by The Last Refuge (the long original version, not the briefer paperback) prior to meeting him at a conference of the Canadian Association on Gerontology, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. There, he gave as a plenary address, a version of his classic article on the political economy of ageing, in the first issue of Ageing and Society.  I was equally in awe of his brain power as his lovely, gentle, collegial stance with me and others. He is much revered by Canadian social gerontologists, and he is much read by my current students in the United States!  It was a privilege to know him.

Victor Marshall, North Carolina, USA

There can be very few researchers in social gerontology whose work was not directly influenced in some way by that of Peter Townsend. For me, trying to apply sociological approaches to old age, back in the 1970s, his work was of huge importance. The rigour and scholarship was of course one thing. But the quality of the writing, and the concern for those with least power in society, elevated his books to a level still unsurpassed in British social science. Peter Townsend brought an extraordinary sociological imagination to all his work. Books such as The Last Refuge and The Family Life of Old People will continue to excite students through the generations. They will do so because of the richness of the research but also because of the underlying passion for trying to understand social life. Continuing that tradition, along with the values associated with it, must be a central task in the years ahead.

Chris Phillipson, Keele

As a student nurse, I was trained and practiced in an environment in which dissent was not encouraged. The people that we cared for were either poor or rich, well or badly educated, and lived easy or hard lives. We thought that that was just the way the world was, and that there was no point in thinking about issues of access to and provision of services. Our understanding was that Beveridge had created these services, and to question them would be impertinent.

Reading Townsend changed that. We were shown that it was possible to challenge the status quo, and to connect up poverty and health and education, along with cultural issues. When I developed an interest in older people, this became even more important, as, in a culture where older people could not escape the world they were offered, because of ageism and reduced financial power, a critique was vital. This critique could foster debate and change. We no longer had to humbly accept what we were given as we grew older, but we could challenge it. Peter Townsend gave us an example of how this could happen, and set in train a practice of asking questions and looking at things with a curious, rather than a grateful eye. The encouragement of troublemakers is a worthy legacy.

Jan Reed, Northumbria

Peter was an inspiration to all of us working in the field of Social Policy and his enthusiasm and commitment to the subject were second to none.  For me it was an added bonus that he focussed both on older people and children as many of us have started out with research on children and then moved to Gerontology.

We had an exchange of emails not long ago and he was still showing as much interest in the subject as he had many years ago.  He will be sadly missed but his work will live on.

Anthea Tinker, London

Peter’s ability to channel his passion for social justice through an intelligent mix of gargantuan scholarly contributions and equally significant political activism has inspired generations of academics, professionals and citizens more widely. He was also personable and approachable for people from all walks of life whether in the somewhat ‘lofty’ green fields of Dartington; the BSG conference hall; or the fringe of party conferences. He will be sadly missed …. yet his important legacy continues.

Dianne Willcocks, York