Alison Bryan: A tribute to Doug Alker (BSL)

Frederick Douglas Alker (1940-2025).

Doug, a fearless deaf visionary and leader of his time. A man who had achieved so much in his life and a role model to many. He wasn’t super human, he was hopeless at detail by his own admission but that’s not what he was there for.

I’m not sure where to start and I’ve been thinking about his impact since yesterday afternoon.

I have various flashbacks in my head. The time Doug told me off when we were in a lift at a hotel in Birmingham. The time we met at a café near Angel, where he wanted to make a run from meeting and spend the time more productively. The hundreds of emails we sent in the past 25 years. The time when he and I were told to leave a FDP committee meeting, we sat in a lobby and he was so bemused and became more so the longer we had been evicted. The time he told me to lead on policy. The opinions he had of people, especially of anyone in power. The time when Paddy and I edited his video for Trafalgar Square where he noticed. When he and I worked on the BSL submission for the DRC on a tight deadline. When he paid a significant chunk of the BSL marches out of his own pocket. Splitting my sides laughing his comedy acts and watching in awe at his magician antics. When I found an internet café in the USA, just to email Doug to continue reviewing a document. The time I was at Charing Cross at 10pm buying the next day’s newspapers and finding an internet café shortly afterwards to email Doug. Where we were in the throes of a FDP AGM at Manchester Deaf Club, he noticed right at the back of the room how grassroot deaf providing hospitality were being treated whilst everyone’s attention was elsewhere. He always noticed – every time and his observation skills were second to none. The number of times he would coach us, just to be fearless. The times he would ask, “What for?” His constant references to BSL should be under the Home Office. His references to GCSE BSL way back in the 1990s. How he hated interpreters with egos and those wanting attention. The time he, Jen and I went to some swanky office in central London trying to organise a festival. His constant reminders that BSL belonged to deaf people. How he managed to fire up a room of deaf people from the stage. His pride when deaf people stood up for themselves, even younger ones. How I still collate establishment honours bi-annually all because of conversations with Doug, many years ago he would do it manually. How annoyed he would get at the likes of UKCoD – sit down and do as you’re told. How he attended regional BSL marches and it made him burst with pride. How he did not even want to go on the plinth at the 2003 march, he disappeared into the crowd. The times he lost me when he started talking about football. His humour which was deeply rooted in his observations.

Doug was a man of many talents, his career started as a chemist, he was also a trade unionist, magician, comedian, football coach, a rugy referee, BBC TV researcher and producer, CEO of RNID, Chair of BDA, Executive Chair of BDA, Chair of FDP, author, Chair of ELDS, Kings Court, Deaf Children North West, etc. DRC Commissioner. Trustee of RADAR (Disability Rights UK these days). At grassroot level the Deaf Tribune Group in the NW, the 1880 Committee in London. Drama training courses at Bristol University. He took the lead towards appointing the BDA’s first-ever deaf Chair in the 20th Century at Torquay in 1983. Doug was the CEO of the RNID when deaf people performed at the Albert Hall / Challenge Anneka. He was later ousted as CEO, the fallout from that. Setting up FDP and leading it. The fire behind the BSL marches. Chair of the BDA when it saw several deaf directors appointed, Sign Academy, IBSL, the beginnings of video relay services in the UK and so forth.

Doug was one of the most fearless and bloody minded people I have ever crossed paths with. He was like Marmite to many people, so many did not like him. Doug knew this and he really did not care for some, he would just see it as upsetting the right people. He knew he wasn’t perfect, he came warts and all and he had bigger fish to fry. He made his share of mistakes in all of that but he got out there and he tried, whilst the rest were armchair critics. If there was genuine injustice, I saw him step back, I still remember how humble he was over a mistake over one of the covers of The Voice and he owned it. Doug had a stubborn and an anti-establishment streak and it drove him. He knew how to rile people up, he could stand on a stage and set fire to that, a skill I have yet to see replicated in deaf circles here in the UK. Doug was a visionary and very early on he could see the links the Welsh language, how he wanted to learn from other minority struggles. He underpinned a lot of current thought around BSL and deaf people, even if people have forgotten or do not realise it. Anyone who works in the deaf/BSL field to this day still works with that vision to some degree. Outside his public persona, Doug was also an intensely private person.

Doug paved the way for deaf leadership in the UK, which was thin on the ground. Doug he challenged deaf charities and he was publically opinionated about it in a way no-one else had been: really not interested in deaf. Deaf leadership to this day has somewhat evolved, that started somewhere.

BSL having legal status and deaf leadership is probably Doug’s lasting legacy, even if he saw what we currently have as very weak and he had a lot to say about it. That fire and campaigning came from somewhere and he planted seeds. Just a few months ago, Doug was being very vocal about the BSL Board. He had a vision as to what was needed and Doug’s words were, “Over to you – either act or schtum!” and he even signed off one of his emails, “Doug – who everybody thought was dead!”

I emailed Doug back in 2019 when he was coming out of chemotherapy. I told him there was no need to reply, as I was trying to be kind and that was me telling him to have a rest. The swift reply I got, “There is no way that I will ‘not bother to reply’ (your words) to it especially from someone like you who I have always valued.” Then he was back on another crusade battle.

Doug was writing a second book and he asked me if I would review it. Chapter 24 was called ‘Beyond the Old Man (or The Way Forward)’. That’s exactly the point, he would tell you not to look back, he would tell you to keep going and demand better and literally over to you. If you want a legacy for that gritty crusader, don’t settle for second best get out there and challenge. Nothing would make him more proud. In his own words, just do it.

We have lost a deaf giant and I will miss him greatly. At this point in writing, I would usually say may he rest in peace but I am not too sure Doug would even want to. Instead, may he fire up eternity.

By Alison Bryan.