My aunt Belinda Pyke, who has died aged 73, spent her life seeking to improve the lives of others. From her early trade union activities to her role as a senior official in the European Commission, and as an inexhaustible human rights campaigner, she poured the same passion, professionalism and commitment into everything she did.
In Brussels she worked in the cabinets of Stanley Clinton-Davis, European commissioner for transport (1985-89), Bruce Millan (regional policy, 1989-95), and Neil Kinnock, who was responsible for transport until 1999 then vice-president of the commission until 2004.
For Kinnock she was lead cabinet staff member. Belinda then worked as director for equality in the directorate-general of employment, before being appointed director for migration and borders in 2011.
Born in Wirral, Belinda was the youngest of the three children of Audrey (nee Smith), a teacher, and Jim Pyke, a bookmaker. After Upton Hall convent school, Belinda studied international relations at the University of Sussex (1973), then did a diploma in sociology at Warwick University (1975).
Her first job was at the British Council in Edinburgh, administrating study awards for postgraduates from developing countries; she left there in 1980 to join the Merchant Navy and Airline Officers’ Association (later Numast) as a research officer. It was thanks to her work on shipping policy that she was asked to join the cabinet of Clinton-Davis.
Belinda also chaired the Brussels Labour party for 14 years and campaigned for the right of overseas Britons to vote in national elections. In retirement from her final post as director for migration and mobility in 2017, she worked with the association of former EU staff, AIACE-UK, for which she was a regional convener and co-editor of its journal.
For more than three decades Belinda spent summers with her American cousins, searching for sand dollars – flat sea urchins – on the beaches in Maine and enjoying a few glasses of wine.
She also travelled widely and adventurously. She bicycled for the leprosy charity Lepra in Malawi (2007) and India (2006 and 2016), and in Palestine for Medical Aid for Palestinians (2016 and 2023). In 2019, she became an ecumenical accompanier (EA) in Palestine, a programme run by the World Council of Churches, where volunteers do three months’ service monitoring and witnessing interactions between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
In Leamington Spa, where she lived from retirement, Belinda co-chaired Justice for Palestine and co-organised vigils, meetings and discussions. It was at one of these events that she collapsed with a brain haemorrhage. Belinda was also actively supportive of Amnesty International, the United Nations Association, and a small recycling charity called Action 21.
Her brother Geoff died in 2017. She is survived by her brother Bill and two nephews, Tim and me.