Community activist and pioneer of the community art movement. Born Helen Prentice in Leith, the daughter of a watch-maker, she was dux of James Clark's School in St. Leonard's (Edinburgh) and became one of the early residents of the Niddrie housing scheme when it opened in the mid-1930s. She married during the Second World War she moved to neighbouring Greendykes. She brought together a self-help group for young mothers, but her sense of social justice was sharpened when the headmaster of her son's school denied him music lessons, and Crummy was galvanised into action. She was passionate that those in poorer areas should have equal access to artistic and cultural opportunities, and went on to found the Craigmillar Festival in 1962. This became a model for grassroots social reform and the community arts movement and a catalyst for many other similar projects around the world. She was able to attract celebrity involvement from the likes of Billy Connolly, Bill Paterson and Sean Connery. In 1972, she was awarded an MBE for services to the community and, in 1992, an honorary doctorate by Heriot-Watt University. She wrote several books including Let the People Sing! (1992). Crummy died in Edinburgh and is remembered by a statue outside Craigmillar Library and Neighbourhood Centre, unveiled in 2014 by Richard Demarco and Ruth Wishart. Her son is the artist Andrew Crummy (b. 1959).
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