On
Sunday evening September 4th 2016 BBC 2 broadcasting an important
documentary which disclosed confidential papers from the USA and British
Government on the decision to persuade the UK to base Polaris Nuclear Rocket
carrying submarines at Holy Loch 25 miles from Glasgow. There was brief reference
to the protest organised by the Direct Action Committee Again which had been
the idea of Peter Currell Brown, the author of Small Creeps Day and which I had
persuaded the Direct Action Committee to sponsor, appointed chief Marshall for the first days of the six
week March from Trafalgar Square conducted on the principles of Satyagraha, after
which I went to Scotland to organise
accommodation, food, transport
from Glasgow, liaising with the Scottish CND and local authorities together
with the police.
In
2006 as part of a printed work concerned with how I became a contemporary creative
artist I wrote about my involvement and have planned to expand on my
involvement after going through available official records as well as my own when
50 years had passed but other priorities have prevented this to date. The
following is what was written in 2006 without editing or correction.
“Within
a matter of weeks I had grown in self-confidence and felt comfortable when
George Clark, who had become the Chief Marshal for the Aldermaston march, and
I, attended a meeting at Scotland Yard, where Home Office officials were also
present, to discuss policing, and our marshalling arrangements for the March
and for the first stage of the Holy Loch Protest. This meeting was significant
because no one represented the Committee 100, although George and I were
members. There had been discussion with the working group of the committee
about organising an event at the end of Aldermaston, but this was
understandably opposed by the CND with good cause. George and I gave assurances
to the police on behalf of our respective organisations that there would be no
civil disobedience action.
I
travelled to Aldermaston on an arranged bus, for the four-day march, commencing
on Good Friday, with two of the Foulness prisoners who were in high spirits and
entertained with tales of prison life. I was sitting with an older man who
after listening to the banter, enquired if I had also been to prison, and I
soon found myself telling him about my experience, the Christian basis for my
action, and how I had become a member of the executive committee of the
Wallington and Beddington Labour party which then part of the Mitcham
constituency. We shared a tube of wine gums and when we arrived he said, “I am
Frank Allaun, Member of Parliament, I would like to keep in touch.”
Frank
was a sponsor of the CND and went on to become Chairman of the Labour Party.
When I switched from economics and politics, at Ruskin, to Public and Social
Administration, at Barnett House, in the University, I was required to
undertake practical work and was sent for two months to the Manchester and
Salford Family Service Unit, which had grown out of the Peace Movement, and I
was allocated to undertake work in Salford, where Frank was the Member of
Parliament. I kept some contact, and he
showed a party of students from Ruskin around the Houses of Parliament. I kept
him informed about my experiences and general response to what I had found in
Salford. When I continued the
correspondence, advising of my first-hand experience of the Rackman type
housing situation in Birmingham, and he quoted information in a
Twilight Zone Commons housing debate, my career as a child care officer was nearly
ended before it had started.
The
Aldermaston March was a huge success in terms of the numbers participating,
although it was difficult to keep in contact with friends because so many had
travelled from all over the United Kingdom, and so many interest groups
organised participation on a mass scale over the last day from Turnham Green to
Trafalgar Square. I made my way early into central London, to take my luggage
to the transport support vehicle which was to be used for the march, and to meet
up with those who were going to start the march with two canoes from Trafalgar
Square, and at the official assembly point at the Covent Garden tube station.
Despite
the Square, and the surrounding areas, becoming so full that many marchers were
directed straight to Hyde Park and their homeward coaches, everything went well
until our departure, when instead of making a full circuit. We were rushed away
by the police towards the first stop at Finchley.
After
leaving Finchley on the Tuesday morning there was an open air meeting at St
Albans 5.30 and a Town Hall meeting at 8pm. There were factory gate meetings at
the Vauxhall Factory Luton 12.30 and Electrolux Factory Luton at 1.45, followed
by a Rally at the Trade Unionists Club at 7.30, while lunch on April 6th
was arranged at the Four Winds café, Clophill, at 2.40pm before moving on to
Bedford arriving at 7pm. I then left to do my work in Scotland, thus missing
out visits to Wakefield where I was to become Assistant County Children’s
officer, with responsibility for the Barnsley and Rotherham area offices, which
were also march stops, and the visit to Sunderland on May Day where I was to
live for thirty years.
It
was only later, when I received letters from the Committee 100, that I learnt
that a badly organised and small civil disobedience demonstration had taken
place outside the American Embassy and that it had become disorderly.
It
was admitted that a demonstration had been known to members of the 100 working
group, and there were justified calls for resignations, but Lady Russell wrote
on behalf of her husband that they had full confidence in Ralph Sheonman and
that the demonstration would have been a success had it not been for the
weather, and that the Aldermaston March Rally had ended early. Both George
Clark and I were able to disassociate ourselves from the action, and I
protested strongly to Lord Russell.
Previously
I had sat at one end of the left wing coffee bar where I had served at tables a
year before, when Ralph Schoenman, who I recognised by sight, entered with two
or three others and engaged people on the next mass sit down, explaining that a
number of participation pledges were required, although doing so did not mean
that the individuals were committed to attend. I gained the impression that
Ralph and others were set on having a confrontation with the government and
were prepared to take short cuts to achieve their objectives. An unnamed secretary responded to my letter
saying that Lord Russell was ill and not receiving correspondence. Later his
wife replied reiterating their confidence in Mr Schoenman who at some point
became their secretary.
In
addition to my concerns that participants were not being adequately prepared
for nonviolent action, or for the consequences of participation, I had major
concerns about the role of the Stalinists and Trotskyites and their front
organisations. After release from prison I had been asked by Houseman’s to
manage the Peace News bookstall at a conference of the Socialist Labour League
at which Pat Arrowsmith was to speak.
I
stayed in conference after she made a courageous speech challenging the concept
of the retention of the worker’s bomb and heard the leader of the organisation
rubbish the nonviolent and global unilateralist message. Their objective was to
disarm capitalism as a means to progress a world socialist revolution. There
was no call for communist countries to give up their weapons of mass
destruction. The conference was also revealing because the tactics of enterism
were clearly outlined together with the process of educating the working class
and promoting the class struggle. The machine tool industry was the next
proposed target. The aim was to enter an industry, promote strikes and then
move on. Those involved in the strike action would learn how capitalism worked,
and the more they and their families suffered the more likely they were to
become revolutionary. This approach was the opposite of everything I believed
in.
Shortly
afterwards I received unexpected visit to our Wallington flat. The person made
reference to the fact that I had attended the Socialist Labour League
conference for although I was there to sell books and pamphlets I had been
required to complete a registration form which involved giving the home
address. I explained that I regarded myself as a Christian based socialist and
direct actionist. I was not a materialist and my social and collective action
approach was based on the voluntary participation of individuals who knew what
they were doing and understood the likely implications of their actions. There
was some debating of issues, then the person, left and I was never approached
in that way again.
I
later shared a joint platform and took the opportunity to condemn those who
were making use of the peace movement who were dishonest in their motivations
and intentions. My knowledge of their unscrupulous tactics was to prove
valuable when later; I encountered the Militant Tendency movement in Local
Government and experienced at first-hand how genuine causes and well-motivated
individuals can be manipulated for undisclosed political purposes.
In
1961 I went to Glasgow uncertain if I was up to the task. I stayed with a
family, before moving to the IONA community house in Sauchihall Street. I
quickly learnt the realities of political, trade union and local government
life across the border.
The
Scottish CND who had opposed our proposed intervention remained apprehensive,
dubious and limited in their willingness to cooperate, although one memorable
afternoon was spent after a meeting with them, at an Edinburgh private club,
during which time I experienced my first pure malt. The response of the police,
the local authorities and other interests varied, sometimes according to local
party political predominance, or sympathy with our aims.
The
march and associated activities through Scotland did not commence until Berwick
on May 7th, and where there was to be a long leg of 21 miles to Cockburnspath,
with more leisurely days, until arriving in Edinburgh on May 12th
and joining me in Glasgow on May 18th. My task was to arrange
accommodation, food and support in Paisley, and Greenock-Gourock, and at Holy
Lock on the South Bank route, and at Dunbarton on the North Bank onto
Helensburgh.
I
received a polite, but cold reception, on the North Bank of the Clyde,
especially at Dunbarton, which led me to complain about the attitude of the
local CND to Peggy Duff. Although she came to Scotland, she did not anticipate
a change of heart, in which she was proved correct, as was usual, and the North
Bank March to Helensburgh was cancelled.
The
response from Glasgow through Clydebank and Paisley to Greenock and Gourock was
significantly different. I received a letter from the Director of Education for
the County of Renfrew advising that I should first raise the question of
accommodation and other support services with the Town Magistrates of Greenock,
and in due course a meeting was arranged with the local Chief Finance and
Education Officers who had been asked to meet me on behalf of the Town Clerk.
They were anxious to know numbers which I was unable to provide, but they
offered assistance once we were in a position to advise if the number of core
marchers increased with the progress through the Scottish industrial
southlands.
A
different perspective was gained from meeting a local power man on the South
bank. I believe he was a shoe maker, which given subsequent findings that my
great great grandfather had been a shoe maker, I wish I had known this at the
time. He was a simple, humble working man who went onto reveal a lifetime
history of struggle and fighting for the betterment of the life of his fellows.
He was a heart and soul socialist, and our backgrounds and experiences were
vastly different, and he was old enough to be my grandfather, but we got on.
I
believe that the reason I was given the green light was because I showed
respect to local interests in another country, but was equally clear that we
had come to make a point and that no one, other than the law, was going to stop
us.
Paisley
was memorable for a different kind of experience. The visit involved a bus trip
filled with young factory lasses coming off shift. Anyone who thinks earthy,
outspoken, forward behaviour, by young women is a contemporary phenomenon has
clearly lead a very sheltered existence, and it was another five years before I
was to be as embarrassed, when as the weekend duty officer, I had to bring back
two absconders from an Oxfordshire Remand home who had hitched to deepest Devon
and we spent several hours on a stopping train, during which time they detailed
their most intimate adventures to the gob smacked other passengers. Fortunately,
I was accompanied by an experienced female officer who reassured me that the
language and behaviour was typical for delinquent girls.
Another
indication of different attitudes was the response of the police at Clydebank.
Our approach was to advise the police of the march and request permission for
the proposed route, undertaking to limit the width of the march along the
roadway. However, at Clydebank I was advised that the traffic would be stopped
for us and officers would be provided to ensure our safe passage. The Police at
Dunoon covering the actual civil disobedience demonstration dealt with my
request more formally. I was introduced by the chairman of the Local CND and I
received a courteous welcome and asked if I would mind a secretary taking
notes, which I welcomed. I detailed
precisely what we intended to do, and what we did not. I emphasised the nonviolent
and open based nature of our beliefs and methods, and the officer was
pleasantly surprised, especially when I said that I would keep him informed of
developments and any changes to the plans.
I
was unable to provide detailed information on numbers although I was aware that
the Committee of 100 had changed its position from being neutral to giving
support because of pressure from sympathisers within the committee, but it was
not clear if support was to be translated into encouraging supporters to
participate.
In
2001 the National Maritime Museum, Research Journal published an article about
the background to the political decision to agree to the US request to locate
Polaris base in Holy Loch and refers to the two civil disobedience protests at
the Loch that year with the implication that the authorities gained information
about the detailed plans by luck or stealth, whereas I had given the
information in a formal way. Although an insignificant inaccuracy, it
reinforces the value of eyewitness accounts and original records when academic
history is written.
I
combined my visit to the Police with staying with other former Foulness
prisoners camped off Strone point by the Lochside in the grounds of the Youth
Hostel, and who had undertaken the action on the first arrival of the depot
vessel. They had camped more directly within the Loch but had retreated to the
comparative safety of the Youth Hostel grounds because of unfriendly raids
I
have known many places with beautiful sun rises and sunsets across water with
hills and mountains as a backcloth. Those in the Mediterranean are intense and
magical, but only those in Scotland, have that pure stillness which pacifies
the troubled spirit. There was no submarine in the Loch, but the large supply
admin control vessel. I came to understand why democratic and peace loving
governments have need to develop sophisticated seagoing weaponry, but the
contrast between the beauty of the natural environment dominated by a large
metal structure of death remains a haunting memory which I wish I could paint
or poem.
Demonstrations
continued at Holy Loch and at other sea water bases in the area for the greater
part of the rest of the century, and I like to believe that I established a
good standard for setting out how to confront government in a responsible
manner and which respected the position of the authorities, and the role of
individuals. It was evident that the local community was torn between the
positive and negative aspects of the base with its economic, social and
security implications. I found more sympathy and understanding than expected,
which I suspect came from a people exploited, at times oppressed, and who knew
the realities of mass unemployment and economic poverty. I subsequently visited
and toured all over Scotland over a twenty-five-year period commencing in the
mid 1970’s and was impressed by the sense of identity, local community and wish
for self-determination, but also a genuine welcome for the visitor who
respected local interests.
My
open disclosure of what was planned for Whit Sunday met with an official
response from the Commander of the Flagship Scotland, addressed to me for the
Committee.
While
headquarters hired the trains to bring up participants and supporters from
London, I had the responsibility of hiring the ferries. The Scottish Ferries
are one of the United Kingdom’s treasures and I quickly became familiar with
the journey from Gourock to Dunoon, from Greenock to Helensburgh and from
Helensburgh with a stop at Kilcreggen back to Dunoon. There is nothing finer than a cup of coffee
and a stack of Scottish pancakes on a chill early morning with views across the
waterways.
There
was also an internal ferry system within the Loch at Hunters Quay, Ardnadam,
Kilmun and Strone Point and as indicated in the letter from Commander
Hawkridge, Piers at Ardnadam and Cardwell Bay had become Admiralty property,
used primarily by the US Navy who transformed the local transport economy,
especially the taxi and ferry services.
Without
knowing the participation implications of Committee 100 involvement the hiring
of ferries and trains appeared speculative, although on the day, every
available ferry was deployed getting people to and from the Loch.
Anxieties
about the likely use of hired transport, and participating numbers were overshadowed
by a crisis which threatened to wreck the focus of the march as Pat Arrowsmith
decided that she was going to walk down Princess Street, Edinburgh despite a
long standing ban against political demonstrations in the capital’s main
highway. She and the core marchers were arrested and fined with the alternative
of prison. Headquarters raised the funds which were wired to me in Glasgow and
I set off to get the party released with the instruction that I was to advise
Pat that her Committee were not pleased, and she was to remain focused on the
purpose of the march. Getting them released would be the easy task, suggesting
to Pat that she had been wrong filled me with dread. Those called in to see
Lady Thatcher will know what I mean, and I know which one I would have
preferred. I need not have worried because when I arrived with the money, Pat,
and the others, had already been released with the fines paid by the Scottish
Union of Miners and they had been taken to their headquarters in Fife. I
decided that I would go in search and deliver the money and the message.
Eventually I got to the headquarters, and found the party being entertained by
the leaders of union, the famous Moffet brothers, who heaped praise on Pat and
the marchers for their audacity, and made everyone honorary members of the
union for what they regarded as a great victory over their capitalist masters.
I delivered a diluted message, and fled, as clearly the outsider in a group
that had walked and campaigned together for nearly six weeks, I was being a
killjoy, and better employed back in Glasgow.
My
short career as a Direct Action organiser came to an abrupt end in Glasgow when
it became evident that unbeknown to me the scope of the demonstration had
escalated. In addition to the attempts of the independent canoeists and whose
efforts were photographed and filmed across the world’s press, a number of
boats of varying sizes were now involved. The Rev Michael Scott was bringing
his boat. There was a substantial motor vessel owned by a someone in the film
or TV business I think, and Pat had persuaded the Committee to purchase a motor
launch which could accommodate several dozen demonstrators. My concern was that people were being
recruited to participate with the minimum of preparation, and I also feared the
news that a train load of Committee 100 supporters was anticipated from
London. Some members of the Direct
Action Committee also had appeared to have been caught up in the mass protest euphoria
and the belief that it was going to be possible to change the position of the
government by direct action. I resigned saying I was going to join the other ex-Foulness
prisoners at the Lochside. I was back to making a personal statement, although
even this turned out differently on the day.
My
first intention was to accompany one of the others in a two-person canoe and I
did some trials. I remained afraid of water for thirty years until hiring a
villa with a pool in the South of France. I decided that I would be putting a
colleague at risk and it was not the intention to mar the demonstration with my
potential fatality, so I joined the motor launch which attempted to get
alongside the depot ship after the action of the canoeists. A pressure hose was
used to swamp the boat and put the engine out of action.
A
cold water pressure hose has quite a clout and we were all soaked, and there
was a risk of sinking, so we called for help to the bigger boat owned by
someone in the film or media business. While we were engaged in transferring
demonstrators, an Admiralty vessel cleverly manoeuvred a buoy on to us so that
the larger vessel became sandwiched and damaged and had to be taken out of the
action.
A
number of us were left stranded in the motor launch at which point a well-known
doctor came to the rescue. She had a first aid boat which I believe was one of
those vehicles which could be used on the road and on water. She towed us back,
during which time we got into conversation and she gave me her telephone number
suggesting that I called in for tea.
This I did sometime later and found that she lived in an impressive
Chelsea House (I have this vague memory of silverware, chandelier and
candelabra and of cucumber sandwiches and cakes provided by one or two young
men who appeared to be in attendance). She was one of the many characters
thrown into prominence by the “movement,” although in her instance the
notoriety related to other matters. It was only one of a number of situations
where I was mothered by older women in the nicest possible way, which on
reflection is not surprising given my lifelong search for a mother, and a
father.
Having
been towed to safety I joined the sit down at Ardnadam Pier which appeared to
be a leaderless situation because Pat Arrowsmith had been arrested, with
others. Some US service men attempted to
use the pier, but refused to walk on the demonstrators, until they were
requested to attempt to do so by higher authorities and this attracted the
hostility and screams from those participating. There was no alternative but to
do something so I stood up and asked everyone to be calm and remember the focus
of our action, and that we were not against the service personnel, or the
police, who were only doing their job.
This
had the desired affect because when the police started to remove demonstrators
to make a passage way, sometimes throw people on each other, not one resisted
or retaliated. I was thrown several times but was not hurt although those, on
whom I landed, were. Some service men having been able to use the pier, this
appeared to be sufficient of a victory for the authorities and the rest of us
were left where we were. There was then communication between myself and a
member of the Direct Action Committee, and with Pat Arrowsmith, and I found
myself back in post, and in charge, and required to persuade everyone at the sitdowns
to get together and form an orderly march of support for Pat to Dunoon, and for
the ferries homeward.
The
problem was those sitting down had no idea who I was, and questioned my
authority for bringing the civil disobedience to an end, but reluctantly they
agreed and I led them off for part of the way before others took over and I
returned to the Lochside camp.
It
was not until joining the Ardnadam sit down they I became conscious of the hundreds,
possibly thousands of people who had cone to support and watch from the
Lochside, or the extent of the media interest coverage. A journalist had
accompanied the trek over the full seven weeks and he correctly forecast that
the attention would be worldwide, and even some of the right of centre press
were more objective than usual in their reporting. When I commenced this
chapter the first draft was from memory, and then revised according to my
correspondence and records, and then I made some internet searches, and then I
decided to read a contemporary version of the event in a faded copy of the
Scottish edition of the Daily Express, and was pleasantly surprised at the way
the event was portrayed.
The
front page headline was “the siege of Proteus,” and a rout for the protestors,
with the Depot ship skipper photographed in the front line watching the
invasion before ordering the hoses to open fire. The photograph of the canoe
flotilla was not dissimilar form our own cartoon drawing, except that we had acquired
large boats. I understated our launch which was said to be of 60 feet and there
is photo of me and the others being drenched as we’ll as one of the clearing of
a pathway at the Pier where I am also in view.
The
paper confirmed that there had been 41 arrests with forty being taken to Dunoon
Police station and locked up and then released without any bail requirement on
the orders of the procurator fiscal. Thirty-nine were charged with a breach of
the peace, one for walking underneath the Admiralty Property pier and one for
being drunk and incapable. The paper described the 900 marchers comprising
bearded men, girls with beatnik haircuts and whole families with young children
as policemen marched alongside them. The crowd of watchers was put at 2000 and
saw a “fantastic dual in the sun”.
There
was also a report saying that the Government had asked the police to take
tougher measures because of concern that the US might reconsider withdrawal
because of the various protests, particularly as President Kennedy was making
his first visit in June. The paper also revealed that in fact the demonstration
had helped the Government to reach agreement with the United States that the
Admiralty would have more control over the submarines while they were anchored
in British waters. This government united front which the media in those days
was only too happy to represent was a significant distortion of a situation
which as the Journal of Maritime research reveals was not reflected in
government documentation now available at the national records office. There
were major divisions of view within the British defence establishment, and
between the British and American allies (Brian Livery September 2001).
After
I had sent the protestors on their homeward way I returned to the Lochside and
instead of the usual eerie darkness there were a number of camp fires on the
opposite shore. It was a few days before the exodus was complete. Some of the
others were inclined to visit the Iona Community, but I lacked the manual
skills to pay my way. It was over thirty years before making my first visit to
Iona.
One
of the manually skilled was the gentle Peter Currell Brown, who had exchanged
chunks of rock with one of his loves, and introduced me to a small community in
mid Wales, to the world and works of William Morris and John Ruskin after we
left Stafford. His novel, “Smallcreep’s Day,” Victor Gollancz describes the
realities of being a factory cog. Others became full members of the Committee
100 and the Direct Action Committee, but for me while not the end of my active
involvement it was the beginning of the end!
One
individual stayed in the area and became a waitress and did a somersault in
thinking and approach as she came to understand more about herself, the motives
and interests of demonstrators and the reality of government and the role of
the armed services. It was several months before I commenced the process of
turning myself intellectually, psychological and emotionally inside out.
At
the time I did not know if I would be prosecuted alongside Pat for our
organisation involvement. Pat went to prison again and I did not, possibly
because of being the agent of the openness, possibly because of my intervention
at the Pier. Pat and I were reconciled in our differences and she surprisingly
wrote admitting that I had managed to smooth over the troubled waters that she
had left in her wake, although this was not intended as an apology because
although, “I must have buggered things up for you” because whatever principles
she had governing her decisions she still had them! No one can ever criticise
Pat for being a fair-weather or opportunistic, or inconsistent in putting into
practice what she preached. Forty years later a 12-year-old girl sent the BBC
her impressions of attending the last day of the Aldermaston March in 2004. She
wrote, “We listened to a speech from a woman called Pat Arrowsmith. She told us
about the first March in 1958 and I discovered that there is a group of people
camped outside all the time as a protest. It is a very ugly set of buildings
and barbed wire surrounds wire surrounds it.”
I
returned to my life at Wallington with occasional forays to London. I had
continued to be active locally involved with two penny worth of socialism. A letter from the Town Clerk of the Borough
of Beddington and Wallington reads, “The Borough Engineer has arranged to have
warnings clearly marked on all four approaches to this junction and it is hoped
that this will improve the position.” My activities petered out, and I failed
to turn up to make a declaration of secrecy to attend the counting of votes in
the election of County Councillors because of the commitment to be in Glasgow.
I
worked at my writing whenever I could. While away in Scotland the English Stage
Company returned my play “A time for Action.”
There was a note “however our readers did feel that the play was
interesting and consequently we would be very pleased to read anything else you
may have written.” Victor Gollancz
having already said similar in relation to my attempt at a novel. John Freeman
at the New Statesman did not accept my piece on prison but added “I do think
the piece is very good and hope you will quickly try it elsewhere.” By October Associated Television Ltd returned
my script, the Natural Law with a pro forma rejecting. I knew I was not
equipped to be a literary success.
On
leaving prison I had signed on, concerned at remaining financially dependent on
my birth mother and aunts. The Labour exchange was very sympathetic and was
surprised at my willingness to undertake menial manual work. The local hospital
personnel officer was similarly sceptical when I said I was prepared to do
sterilization work which primarily involved tackling dirty hospital linen, and
said while I could have the job he could not recommend that I took it, and
ought to go for something better. I had to confess that my heart was not in it,
so I came off the dole because it seemed to me wrong to accept public money
when there was a job available.
Morgan
Phillips at the Labour Party arranged for me to see a senior officer who
advised on how to become a Member of Parliament, or an agent, or a local
authority councillor, but suggested that first I should try to gain entry to
Ruskin College who ran a two-year course studying Economics and Politics. I
discussed this with the Chairman and Secretary of my local party and they
arranged me to speak to someone who had attended Ruskin previously, and acted
as referees. I was interviewed and offered a place for the 1961 Michaelmas Term,
although it was not until I got there that I realised how much an Oxford
College clone, the adult education college had become, and was a gateway to an
Oxford degree, in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
I
also applied for the post of London region organiser for the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament and was given every encouragement by those making the
appointment. I withdrew before the final decision was made, and the appointment
went to another young man involved with CND work at Oxford!
After
forty years I discovered three statements which demonstrate how much, and how
little, my thinking has changed about fundamentals. All three were challenging
to read and even more difficult to reproduce large chunks for others to see. I
decided any account of how I became me, had to include the bits which I would
prefer not to remember. They reflect my weakness and my strength,
There is one aspect of what was written
that I need to talk in this section now that I have discovered further information
about the unsolved murder of a friend which occurred when I was on the Child
Care Course at Birmingham University in 1963 and where only recently I was able
to obtain a copy of the alleged signed statement which I volunteered but which does
not match my recollection of what happened. The statement obtained under
Freedom of Information from National archives where the documentation is being
held until 2063 is a copy of the statement made to Birmingham Police following
consultation with the Director of the Child Care Course. However, it was never
signed but read over the phone to me. While the statement does make reference that
the friend had said she worked for the Admiralty it omits that she appeared to
knowledge of events which only those directly involved in the sea operations
could have known and it also omits one crucial piece of information which may
have helped to solve the crime. She had
disclosed to me having had a child adopted and the name of the father (redacted)
in my copy had been disclosed. There was
further information about which I am now unsure. I am still considering the
best way to ensure that the authorities have all the information to hand in the
event of someone more directly involved making enquiries at some point in the future.
The doctor whose home I visited has now
died and there is an interesting Wikipedia article. (Dr Rachel Pinney).
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