It has taken us over two years to sort, conserve and catalogue this wonderful collection about the peace activist Helen John. In 2009 Helen donated to FAN some materials on women’s peace camps, as well as some prison correspondence. After her death in 2017 her family gave a further large donation of a range of documents and other artefacts. We have now merged these into a single collection.
Helen was a founder member of Greenham Common women’s peace camp, and later helped set up the women’s peace camp at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, the site of an American eavesdropping base. Apart from her activism at these two camps, she took part in innumerable direct actions and was arrested many times. She also stood against Tony Blair in the 2001 general election while she was in prison.
While working on this collection we have laughed a great deal reading about the sheer audacity of these women peace activists, and have been amazed by their commitment to keep taking direct action despite setbacks. You can see the collection catalogue here.