{{Short description|English politician (1938–2026)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Flick Rea | honorific_suffix = MBE | image = | caption = | office1 = Lib Dem Group Leader on Camden Council | term_start1 = 22 May 2014 | term_end1 = 7 September 2020 | deputy1 = | predecessor1 = Keith Moffitt | successor1 = Luisa Porritt | term_start2 = May 1986 | term_end2 = 12 May 2005 | deputy2 = | predecessor2 = Position established | successor2 = Keith Moffitt | office3 = Camden Borough Councillor<br />for Fortune Green | term_start3 = 8 May 1986 | term_end3 = 4 June 2021 | predecessor3 = Ian Tomisson | successor3 = Nancy Jirira | birth_name = Felicity Marion Peel Corbin | birth_date = {{Birth date|1938|5|21|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2026|5|25|1938|5|21|df=yes}} | death_place = Paddington, London, England | education = Royal Academy of Dramatic Art | party = Liberal Democrat | other_party = Liberal | spouse = Charles Rea | children = }}
'''Felicity Marion Peel Rea''' (née '''Corbin'''; 21 May 1938 – 25 May 2026), known as '''Flick Rea''',<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=http://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/LBCE_1986-5-8.pdf |title=London Borough Council elections : 8 May 1986 |date=1986 |publisher=London Residuary Body - Research and Intelligence Unit |isbn=1-85261-003-4 |location=[London] |oclc=18325621 |archive-date=2020-08-29 |access-date=2022-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829012214/https://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/LBCE_1986-5-8.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-06-14 |title=Queen's birthday honours list 2013: MBE |url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/15/queens-birthday-honours-mbe |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> was an English Liberal Democrat politician who represented the Fortune Green ward on Camden Council for 35 years, before her retirement in 2021.<ref name=":1" />
==Early life and education== Rea was born as ''' Felicity Marion Peel Corbin''' on 21 May 1938.<ref name="HH-07-SEP-2020">{{cite news |last=Taylor |first=Harry |date=7 September 2020 |title=Longstanding Camden Lib Dem leader Flick Rea 'passes on the baton', with Luisa Porritt taking over borough's third party |website=Ham&High |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/local-council/flick-rea-camden-lib-dem-leader-steps-down-in-favour-3671200}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=1962-07-21 |title=Actress Bride at Taunton |pages=3 |work=Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107429350/actress-bride-at-taunton/ |access-date=2022-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Raffray |first=Nathalie |date=2022-09-14 |title=Camden's councillors pay tributes to Queen Elizabeth II |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/21473421.camdens-councillors-pay-tributes-queen-elizabeth-ii/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=Ham & High |language=en}}</ref> She was the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Peel Corbin and his wife Phyllis. Her father, a descendant of Sir Robert Peel, was headmaster at Huish's Grammar School.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1958-08-02 |title=Start of a Taunton Girl's Stage Career |pages=5 |work=Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107431525/start-of-a-taunton-girls-stage-career/ |access-date=2022-08-12}}</ref> She was educated at Weirfield School in Taunton. It was her ambition to be an actress from the age of five, and she appeared in local amateur stage productions with the Pleiades Players and Taunton Thespians. After leaving school, she trained at Bristol's Hartley Hodder School of Drama, and was by then known as '''Felicity Peel Corbin'''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1956-09-08 |title=Entertainment |pages=5 |work=Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107430842/entertainment/ |access-date=2022-08-12}}</ref> During this period, she won the Hartly Hodder Cup for the best acting performance at the Taunton and Somerset Music and Drama Festival in 1954, and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art's silver medal.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1956-01-14 |title=Taunton Girl's Theatre Ambition |pages=5 |work=Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107431133/taunton-girls-theatre-ambition/ |access-date=2022-08-12}}</ref>
She then completed a two-year course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, leaving in July 1958.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=1962-07-14 |title=Actress to Marry |pages=1 |work=Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107430143/actress-to-marry/ |access-date=2022-08-12}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite news|title='Queen' Flick Rea's big red book!|website=Westminster Extra|url=https://www.westminsterextra.co.uk/article/queen-flick-reas-big-red-book |first=Harry |last=Taylor |date=22 October 2021}}</ref> A fellow student was Glenda Jackson, who would later become her MP.<ref name=":6">{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|311550717}} |last1=Sampson |first1=Katie |date=3 November 1999 |title=Secretarial: I Work For - Who needs Jeffrey Archer? FLICK REA IS DIARY SECRETARY TO SUSAN KRAMER, LIB-DEM MAYORAL CANDIDATE AND TRANSPORT AND FINANCE CONSULTANT |newspaper=The Independent |page=12 }}</ref> By the early 1960s, Rea was using '''Felicity Peel''' as her stage name.<ref name=":2" /> She worked with the Salisbury Repertory Company, and a repertory company in Oldham.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1962-02-03 |title=Felicity to wed actor |pages=8 |work=Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107431656/felicity-to-wed-actor/ |access-date=2022-08-12}}</ref> Her early credits included ''The Marriage-Go-Round'', ''The Boy Friend'', ''Simple Spymen'', ''Watch It, Sailor'', ''Julius Caesar'' and ''Love in a Mist''.<ref name=":3" /> She had a small role in a 1961 episode of ABC Television's ''The Avengers''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Series 1 : Toy Trap : trivia |url=https://dissolute.com.au/the-avengers-tv-series/series-1/119-toy-trap-other.html |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=The Avengers}}</ref> She also appeared in the film ''A Kind of Loving''.
== Political career == === Camden Council === In 1974, Rea joined the Liberal Party.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">{{cite news |title=Camden's one remaining Liberal Democrat councillor has pledged |newspaper=Ham & High |date=May 29, 2014 |id={{ProQuest|1529672121}} }}</ref> She first stood for election to Camden Council in a by-election in April 1980, following the resignation of Fortune Green ward's Conservative councillor Richard Almond. Representing the Liberals, she came third behind the Labour candidate, with the Conservatives holding the seat. She again stood for the two-member Fortune Green ward (based around the area of the same name) in 1982, this time as a Liberal and Social Democratic Party Alliance candidate. The Liberals had come third behind Labour in Fortune Green at the 1978 election (when the ward was created), with the Conservatives winning both seats. However, Rea and her fellow Alliance candidate Esmond Hitchcock finished second to the Conservatives in 1982, with Rea being the closer of the two to being elected in what was a three-way marginal.<ref>{{Cite book |last= |url=http://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/LBCE_1978-5-4.pdf |title=London borough council elections, 4 May 1978. |date=1978 |publisher=Greater London Council Intelligence Division |isbn=0-7168-0994-X |location=London |oclc=1100897821 |archive-date=2015-04-02 |access-date=2022-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402091850/https://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/LBCE_1978-5-4.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/LBCE_1982-5-6.pdf |title=London Borough Council elections : 6 May 1982 |date=1982 |publisher=Greater London Council Intelligence Unit |isbn=0-7168-1257-6 |location=[London] |oclc=15657315 |archive-date=2015-04-02 |access-date=2022-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114315/https://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/LBCE_1982-5-6.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rallings |first1=Colin |url=https://www.electionscentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Camden-1964-2010.pdf |title=London Borough of Camden Election Results 1964-2010 |last2=Thrasher |first2=Michael |publisher=The Elections Centre, Plymouth University}}</ref>
At the next council election, in 1986, Rea and Roger Billins gained both Fortune Green seats for the Alliance, under the banner of the Liberal Social Democratic Party Alliance Spotlight Team. She remained a councillor continuously from that point on. In 1990, she was elected as a Liberal Democratic Spotlight Team candidate, the Liberals by that point having merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats.<ref name=":0" />
Rea was elected as the leader of Camden Liberal Democrats from 1986 to 2005, and again from 2014 to 2020.<ref name="HH-07-SEP-2020" /><ref name="HH-15-OCT-2021">{{cite news |last=Russell |first=Herbie |date=15 October 2021 |title=Flick Rea: Community celebrates 'Empress of West Hampstead' |website=Ham&High |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/local-council/west-hampstead-community-thanks-former-councillor-flick-rea-8413670}}</ref> In 2001, Rea became the first Liberal Democrat to chair a committee on Camden Council. She oversaw the scrutiny panel on the council's administration of its commercial properties and produced a report with the conclusion that "We're [Camden council] not actually very good landlords".<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Wauchope |first=Piers |title=Camden A political history |date=2010 |publisher=Shaw Books |isbn=978-0-9565206-0-9 |location=Tunbridge Wells |oclc=652089306 }}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref> In 2013, the Liberal Democrat Group objected to the ruling Labour administration's choice of mayor, and unsuccessfully nominated Rea instead.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lib-Dem Group Bids to Change Outcome of Mayoral Ceremony |newspaper=Ham & High |date=May 16, 2013 |id={{ProQuest|1351532397}} }}</ref>
She was the sole Liberal Democrat on the council in 2014, after all the others had lost their seats at that year's elections.<ref name="HH-15-OCT-2021" /> Following this, she said: "I will continue to cause trouble. I've been a councillor for 28 years. I intend to put the knowledge to good use for the benefit of residents in Fortune Green."<ref name=":7" />
At the Liberal Democrats' 2018 campaign launch, the former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael endorsed Rea's successful bid for re-election, calling her "formidable".<ref>{{cite news |title='Get Flick Rea Re-Elected' Former Scottish Secretary Tells Camden Lib Dems |newspaper=Ham & High |date=Mar 22, 2018 |id={{ProQuest|2016340479}} }}</ref> In November that year, a motion was put forward to the council by Rea and her colleague Luisa Porritt calling for a second referendum on Britain's departure from the European Union; with the support of Labour councillors, it was passed.<ref>{{cite news |title=Labour Councillors Back Lib Dems' Motion Calling for Second EU Referendum |newspaper=Ham & High |date=Nov 15, 2018 |id={{ProQuest|2133235285}} }}</ref> Rea retired on 4 June 2021, and her seat was retained for the Liberal Democrats at a 22 July by-election by Nancy Jirira.<ref name="HH-07-Jun-2021">{{cite news |last=Boniface |first=Michael |date=7 June 2021 |title=Fortune Green's Flick Rea steps down after 35 years on Camden Council |website=Ham&High |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/flick-rea-resigns-as-fortune-green-councillor-8033616}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=23 July 2021 |title=Fortune Green by-election result |url=https://news.camden.gov.uk/fortune-green-by-election-result/ |access-date=7 April 2022 |work=Camden London Borough Council}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Maughan |first=Andrew |title=Election of a councillor for the Fortune Green ward – Declaration of result of poll |url=https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/0/Result.pdf/465a6459-3ccf-388d-de7e-aef297840ab9?t=1627039423148 |access-date=7 April 2022 |work=Camden London Borough Council}}</ref> On 21 June 2022, Rea was appointed an honorary alderman of the London Borough of Camden.<ref>{{cite news |last=Osley |first=Richard |date=21 June 2021 |title=WATCH: Roger Robinson and Flick Rea made honorary aldermen |website=Camden New Journal |url=https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/watch-roger-robinson-and-flick-rea-made-honorary-aldermen}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Gregory |first=Julia |date=21 June 2022 |title=Two 'extraordinary' former councillors made honorary aldermen of Camden |website=Camden Citizen |url=https://www.camdencitizen.co.uk/2022/06/21/former-councillors-honorary-aldermen-camden/}}</ref>
In 2013, Rea received an MBE for services to local government.<ref name="HH-15-OCT-2021" /> The ''Hampstead & Highgate Express'' dubbed her "The Empress of West Hampstead" (the area being considered part of the Fortune Green ward she represented).<ref name="HH-15-OCT-2021" /> Similarly, her son Robert described Rea as "the Queen of West Hampstead".<ref name=":5" /> She took part in readings of poetry at a 2016 recital in West Hampstead Library.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stonebanks |first=Mark |date=28 October 2016 |title=An Ode to poetry evenings in West Hampstead |url=http://westhampsteadlife.com/2016/10/28/an-ode-to-poetry-evenings-in-west-hampstead/18093 |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=West Hampstead Life |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Other roles === In 1997, Rea became a part-time administrator for the London Liberal Democrats. After deciding to vote for Susan Kramer as the party's first London mayoral candidate at the 2000 election, Rea worked as Kramer's secretary.<ref name=":6" />
She acted as a member of the London Arts Council, sat on the board of the Hampstead Theatre and was Chair of the Local Government Association's Culture, Tourism and Sports Board.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=Flick Rea MBE|website=Camden Liberal Democrats|url=https://ldcamden.nationbuilder.com/flick_rea|access-date=11 August 2022|archive-date=11 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811162643/https://ldcamden.nationbuilder.com/flick_rea|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Locally, Rea was an active member of the community pressure group West Hampstead Amenity and Transport group (WHAT), which she co-founded, and the consumer organisation London Regional Passengers' Committee (LRPC).<ref>{{cite news |title=40 Years of Working Hard to Improve their Community |newspaper=Ham & High |date=Oct 10, 2013 |id={{ProQuest|1440584119}} }}</ref><ref name=":4" /> For a number of years, Rea was secretary of the Pedestrians' Association.<ref name=":6" /> She was appointed by Camden Council as a Trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dicks |first1=Joan |date=Summer 2006 |title=The Friends of the Charles Dickens Museum |journal=The Dickensian |volume=102 |issue=469 |pages=185–190 |id={{ProQuest|963998406}} }}</ref>
== Personal life and death == On 15 July 1962, she married fellow actor Charles Patrick Rea in Staplegrove, Taunton.<ref name=":2" /> The couple moved to West Hampstead, north west London, and had a son and a daughter.<ref name="HH-15-OCT-2021" /><ref name=":4" /> Charles, who had numerous television and film credits, died on 17 March 1992, aged 69.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Harry |date=2018-04-18 |title=Lib Dem leader Flick Rea enters 8th election battle for council seat |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/lib-dem-leader-flick-rea-enters-8th-election-battle-for-3590858 |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=Hampstead Highgate Express |language=en-UK}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Rea |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba0371085 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008134222/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba0371085 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 8, 2018 |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=BFI |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Rea |url=https://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=28417 |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=Aveleyman.com}}</ref>
Rea died at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, on 25 May 2026, at the age of 88.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flick Rea, my mother – a force of nature |url=https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/flick-rea-my-mother-a-force-of-nature |access-date=2026-05-26 |website=Camden New Journal |language=en-gb}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rea, Flick}} Category:1938 births Category:2026 deaths Category:Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors Category:21st-century English women politicians Category:20th-century English women politicians Category:Councillors in the London Borough of Camden Category:People from West Hampstead Category:Politicians from the London Borough of Camden Category:Women councillors in England Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:20th-century English actresses Category:English stage actresses Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art