ALI KEFFORD meets the Honorary Alderman Mrs Kathie Johnson who has proved to be more than a match for the males she has come up against in local politics...

IF YOU find your local councillor a bit wayward, there's one woman who can probably whip him/her into line in a matter of seconds. Throughout her life 87-year-old Kathie's often been a lone female politician in a room full of men.

But it has never daunted her.

Possibly the effect has been quite the reverse.

"Ahh, men, men, men. Oh, I can manage men," she declares, describing how she once booted a councillor out of a meeting for eating a doughnut.

"Hmm. That calmed them down. I was very strict, I'm a fierce brute."

The Hon Alderman Mrs Kathie Johnson MBE PhD may be an octogenarian but she's still a force to be reckoned with.

Her brain is as nimble as someone half that age as she reels off names and dates from decades ago, without pausing to draw breath.

Kathie currently helps out at the Red Cross, dispensing tea and playing the piano for groups she refers to as "old people" (and are, in all probability, around ten years younger than she is).

And she still takes an active role in the running of St Michael's Church in Bugle Street, Southampton's oldest building.

This diminutive pensioner with dancing eyes lives in a flat in Winchester Road, the walls of which are covered with pictures of glories past when she roved Hampshire as a top Southampton councillor.

Kathie was born in 1914 into a Herefordshire household and was a Conservative before she could walk.

"I was born and brought up in quite a big family. My father was always rushing around doing things.

"I was born a little Conservative and I will die an old Conservative.

"I didn't have a very good education and went to a school where I was taught to ride side-saddle and not much else."

Soon she joined the Red Cross and spent part of the war driving ambulances around Plymouth, which was badly bombed during the Blitz.

After the war she moved to Southampton with her first husband - an army major - whom she lost in the early 50s.

The next year she was elected a councillor and began her long career in politics.

"Being a councillor was all completely voluntary then. I used to spend all my time in the civic centre, it was a full-time job.

"I was never very well off but I had been left some money by my parents and existed on the money I received from renting out the ground floor of my little house in Bellevue Road."

As Kathie started addressing council meetings she decided to get herself some oratory skills.

So she had expensive public speaking lessons (at 4 guineas a term) "which really taught me to speak out".

Even now she attends Southampton City Council meetings as she has a seat set aside for her as an honorary alderman.

"I don't know why I go," she huffs.

"You can't hear what they're saying half the time because they're mumbling."

Kathie's achieved a huge amount in her life.

Here's a brief potted version:

She was made an Alderman of Southampton in 1966; Sheriff of the county of Southampton between 1966 and 1968; Mayor of Southampton 1969-70; became an Honorary Alderman in 1974 and is the last surviving one.

Kathie became an MBE in 1990 for 50 years' service to the Red Cross and is still Vice President of its Hampshire branch.

As Sheriff she rode the boundaries of Southampton on her horse - the first Sheriff to do so for 139 years (and the last).

And, as if all that's not enough, she says she played a significant role in the founding of the city's annual Boat Show.

The first event in 1969 saw a tiny crowd of people gather at a small quay in Marchwood to gaze down at eight small (and I mean diddy) yachts bobbing about on the water.

The 21st century version of The Southampton Boat Show now draws 120,000 visitors and 600 exhibitors, and nets around £60m in business.

Last year Kathie was taken for a ride in a £4m Sunseeker yacht with bedrooms and a dining room.

The experience rather took her breath away.

"I would have bought it but I didn't have my cheque book with me," she says with eyes glinting with glee.

Having been involved with charity work for sufferers of multiple sclerosis, Kathie went on to found the first riding club for the disabled in Southampton in 1966.

She was president of the trust until she stepped down to make way for, um, er, none other than Princess Anne.

All this time devoted to the community has meant Kathie's not now sitting surrounded by grandchildren.

But she doesn't seem too fussed.

"I never went against having children but the last time I got married he was 71 and I was 51 so it was a bit late.

"I would never have been able to do so much if I had had children. I have had a different concept in my life."

Her second husband was Albert Johnson, Lord Mayor of Portsmouth between 1950 and 1952.

Their eyes met over council minutes and they were eventually married in 1966 at Shirley Baptist Church.

But just three years and two months later, Kathie was a widow again.

"He dropped down dead on me with a brain haemorrage," she explains very matter-of-factly.

The Honourable Alderman may have had a considerable lasting impact in Southampton.

But she's not done yet.

So what does she make of today's City Council?

"They're paid big money. They have far more officers than I ever had and a cabinet does it all.

"In my day every councillor was in on the job. A little Labour councillor said to me the other day that, these days the ordinary members have hardly anything to do.

Her first name - Hilda - means battle maid and she believes this to be apt.

She waves cheerily out of the window at her departing visitors, looking like a crinkly-haired old lady.

But don't underestimate her.

If Kathie Johnson is like anyone, it's the Agatha Christie super-sleuth Miss Marple.

A seemingly-innocuous little lady who has a will of iron and has a habit of persevering against the odds - and getting results.