Jean Middleton (30 August 1928 – 14 December 2010) was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. She was born in Durban and trained as a teacher. She was married to

Harold Strachan Robert Harold Lundie "Jock" Strachan (1 December 1925 – 7 February 2020) was a white South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. He flew for the South African Air Force during the Second World War, trained as an artist, then became Umkho ...

. Middleton moved to Johannesburg and became active in the Congress of Democrats and then the South African Communist Party. She helped

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

by letting him use her flat. She was imprisoned, held in solitary confinement and then restricted from working or associating with others. Middleton moved to the United Kingdom and taught English in London. In 1991 she returned to South Africa where she edited ''Umsebenzi''. In 1998 her book, ''Convictions: a woman political prisoner remembers'' was published. Late in life she suffered from

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

and returned to Britain.

References

1928 births 2010 deaths South African activists South African women activists {{AntiApartheid-activist-stub