Richenda Barbour

Richenda was very much an active and long-standing member of UK WILPF and a regular attender and contributor to the London branch. In celebration of the WILPF 94th Birthday, it was decided to nominate her as a WILPF heroine, because she was one. But also to show that British peace women, in the company of US, Hungarian, German, Scottish and WILPF members also have an honoured place in our movement.

One of my last recollections of Richenda was at the annual commemoration of conscientious objectors where she brought a heap of white roses for us to place on the memorial in London.

Because she was essentially a modest woman, our knowledge of her work and achievements does not approach the reality. Her record in the British peace movement goes back to the first Aldermaston March to the Atomic Weapons Research establishment in 1958, where the focus was on banning the H Bomb. She and her husband continued to march with CND in the following years.

In 2008, on the 50th anniversary of the first march, Richenda was at Aldermaston again and is recorded as saying: “It’s so sad that we haven’t changed an awful lot but I feel we are doing the right thing.”