Pat Arrowsmith

Pat Arrowsmith (born 2 March 1930) is an English author and peace campaigner.[1][2] She was a co-founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Early life

Arrowsmith was born into a clerical family in Leamington Spa as the youngest of three children.[3][4] Her mother was Margaret Vera Arrowsmith (née Kingham) and her father Reverend G. E. Arrowsmith.[5]

In 1939 the family moved to Torquay, where Arrowsmith studied at Stover School, before transferring to Cheltenham Ladies College in September 1944. She read history at Newnham College, Cambridge,[6] and then read social science at the University of Liverpool and at Ohio University as a US–UK Fulbright Scholar.[7]

Campaigning activities

Arrowsmith is a peace campaigner and has worked to campaign for nuclear disarmament, an end to the Vietnam war, the removal of British troops from Northern Ireland, an end to the Gulf War, and feminist and lesbian issues.[8]

Peace campaigning

Arrowsmith was a co-founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and is one of the organisation's current vice-presidents.[9] She was one of the organisers of the first Aldermaston march.[10] She was also one of the original signatories of the Committee of 100. From 1958 onwards, she served eleven prison sentences for her political activities.[3] In 1961 she was the subject of parliamentary questions after she was force-fed while on hunger strike in Gateside prison.[11] She also worked for the human-rights organisation Amnesty International for 24 years up to 1994[3] and was the organisation's first prisoner of conscience in Britain.[12]

Running for Parliament

Arrowsmith was the unsuccessful candidate of the Radical Alliance, a CND splinter group, for Fulham in the 1966 and 1970 general elections.

She stood as a candidate for the Trotskyist Socialist Unity party against the then Prime Minister, James Callaghan, in his constituency of Cardiff South-East in the parliamentary general election of 1979. During Callaghan's customary acceptance speech on re-election, Arrowsmith carried on sustained heckling. Callaghan, in an avuncular response to the heckling, remarked that it was the first time he had "conducted a duet in returning a vote of thanks, and that it was not a particularly tuneful duet."[13] He then suggested that Arrowsmith might be invited to take the platform, which she did, while he, his supporters and all the other candidates left the hall. However, her short speech was broadcast on the BBC. It demanded a withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and self-determination for its people.[14]

Personal life

Arrowsmith was involved in a personal relationship with fellow peace campaigner Wendy Butlin,[8] who was also one of the original signatories for the Committee of 100. Ineligible to qualify for her father's inheritance unless she were married to a man, Arrowsmith married poet Donald Gardner for one day before having the marriage annulled. She then donated some of the money to various political causes, including Gay Pride Week 1979.[3][15][7]

Publications

Arrowsmith has published several novels and works of poetry.[4][16] Her archive and personal papers are held at the LSE Library in London.[7]

Novels
  • (1949) Camp Christopher
  • (1965) Jericho
  • (1970) Somewhere like this
  • (1982) The Prisoner
  • (1998) Many are called

Memoirs
  • (1995) I should have been a Hornby Train

Poetry
  • (1975) Breakout: poems and drawings from prison
  • (1981) On the Brink
  • (1984) Thin Ice: peace poems
  • (2000) Drawing to Extinction: poems and pictures
  • (2005) Going On
  • (2009) Dark Light

Non-fiction
  • (1972) To Asia in Peace
  • (1972) The Colour of Six Schools
  • (1990) Nice Lives
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References
  1. "Book Review of 'Somewhere Like This'". Trash Fiction. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  2. Goff, Hannah (7 April 2004). "Peace campaigners return to Aldermaston". BBC News. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  3. Julia Bindel: "No time for battle fatigue" The Guardian, 30 April 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2016
  4. Pat Arrowsmith Orlando Project. Retrieved 6 November 2016
  5. "ARROWSMITH/39 – Family papers, including items relating to Pat Arrowsmith's parents". LSE Library. London School of Economics. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  6. Emily Hamer (6 October 2016). Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-4742-9280-1 – via Google Books.
  7. "ARROWSMITH/32 – Personal papers, 1940s–2000s (including papers regarding her education and employment, 1940s–60s)". LSE Library. London School of Economics. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  8. "Arrowsmith; Pat (1930–); pacifist, poet and artist". LSE Library. London School of Economics. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  9. "List of council members 2018 – 2019". Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
  10. "60 Faces: Pat Arrowsmith". Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
  11. "Hansard 24 October 1961". Hansard. 24 October 1961. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  12. "Amnesty International Newsletter" (PDF). Amnesty International.
  13. Coverage of election result on BBC Decision 79
  14. "Pat Arrowsmith, a Troops Out campaigner, heckles PM Jim Callaghan". BBC. 3 May 1979. Retrieved 19 March 2019 – via YouTube.
  15. "Lesbian icons: Pat Arrowsmith". Velvet-Club.com.
  16. Pat Arrowsmith British Library. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
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