In remembrance of Maisie Carter

Maisie Carter

3 August 1927 – 26 March 2023

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Maisie Carter was born in Bermondsey in 1927 at a time when it was a poor working-class district and Dr Alfred Salter and his wife Ada were active in the area working to improve the health and well-being of the local population.  Maisie remembered Dr Salter and his tireless work. She, too, went on to become a tireless campaigner for social justice and peace all her life and was involved in many organisations including the Communist Party, the Labour Party, the NUT, Merton and Sutton Trades Council, Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and CND right up until the end of her long life. Maisie taught for many years at The Priory, C of E School in Queen’s Road, Wimbledon and combined her professional life with campaigning and her family, bringing up two boys, Mick and Stephen.

Maisie, with Joanna Bazley, was a founder member of Wimbledon Disarmament Coalition/CND in the 1980s during the Cruise missile crisis, which brought a resurgence of peace activity nearly everywhere.  Maisie was involved in all the activities of the group and was a longstanding member of the committee, for many years as the Chair.  The meetings at her cosy flat in Raynes Park were always accompanied by tea and biscuits.

She and Joanna were very much the driving force behind the annual fund-raising event, the Fete of the Earth. Maisie would arrive with her car so full of bric a brac it was impossible to think we could possibly get rid of it all.  She was often to be found selling raffle tickets or latterly behind the stall selling CND merchandise often supported by her daughter-in-law, Melody. After she was no longer able to attend the Sidmouth Folk Festival, where she had been instrumental in setting up an annual Hiroshima Day commemoration, she joined our annual gathering by Rushmere Pond on 6th August, and, with great effort and help from friends, was there in August 2022. She attended our weekly Vigil for Peace outside Wimbledon Library handing out leaflets and engaging with passersby, from its inception after 9/11 in 2001 until the pandemic finally brought it to an end in 2020.  She was also to be found each month on the Peace Table.

In the early 1990s, the then WDC/CND committee organised the planting of a Japanese cherry tree in Cannizaro Park, to commemorate those who died in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A replacement tree was planted in 2015, and when Maisie appealed to the Arboriculture department at Merton Council a new plaque was put up in 2019, to replace the original which had been stolen. She always took part in the annual Remembrance Day commemoration and after the main event would read a suitable piece of poetry to a small gathering of local CND members.

Maisie had many interests outside of campaigning for good causes.  Among other things she enjoyed trips to the theatre and cinema, reading and poetry.  Although in the last few years she was dogged by ill-health, she would still turn out for leafleting or the Peace Table, often looking rather fragile, but this was deceptive: she could still vigorously engage members of the public in discussion and stand up powerfully for the ideals in which she believed. Her contribution to the local peace movement was immense and her influence was felt far beyond Wimbledon.  Maisie was a wonderful person and will be much missed by all of us.

- Wimbledon Disarmament Coalition -

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Protestors tell US Embassy we don’t want your nukes on our doorstep

London CND and friends held a successful protest outside the US embassy in the early evening of Tuesday 21 March to oppose the return of Unite States nuclear weapons once again to the UK. This will make Britain a likely target for a nuclear attack, so it is essential that the US’s plan to base their missiles here does not go ahead.

Protestors heard about CND’s campaign to stop US nukes being stationed at Lakenheath air force base 70 miles north east of London from a range of speakers, including Sue Wright, Chair of Norwich CND which is the nearest group to Lakenheath and Junayd Islam from Cambridge Student CND.

Cllr Emma Dent-Coad, Stop the War’s Shelly Asquith, Jess Barnard, Labour National Executive Committee member, and John McGrath representing the International Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America also addressed protestors. Rev Nagase from the London Peace Pagoda offered prayers for peace, and members of CND groups around London and the Home Counties contributed songs and poems, and colourful banners.

CND’s social media platforms, plus coverage from Times Radio and other local and regional news media helped get the message across to Londoners, and publicise the next national protest at Lakenheath on Saturday 20 May.

Book your seat on London CND’s coach early to make sure of a place!

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In remembrance of Hedy Fromings

Hedy Fromings

23rd December 1926 – 19th January 2023

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“Mostly I am interested in people and talking to them.”

— Hedy Fromings

Hedwig (known as Hedy) was born in Ruprechtice Liberec in Czechoslovakia. In 1938 the Munich agreement was signed allowing the Germans to occupy the Sudetenland. Hedy’s father was a well-known trades unionist and edited a left-wing newspaper. He was arrested by the Germans and survived six years in a concentration camp. Hedy, aged 12, and her mother were helped to escape by a Quaker organization in Prague. Hedy and her mother spent the war in North Wales as refugees.

After the war, Hedy trained as an architect first in London and then Prague, but decided to return to England. In 1961 she married Tony Fromings, also an architect, and in 1963 they had twins, Andy and Lenka. In 1965 Hedy and Tony moved to Forest Hill, becoming stalwarts of the South East London peace movement for the rest of their lives. Tony died in 2006.

In the 1980s and 90s, they were both regular attenders of London Region CND events in Conway Hall and at SOAS, and also attended Nuclear Trains Action Group meetings. They were involved in many campaigns, including marches to Aldermaston, regular CND stalls in Forest Hill and Sydenham, and organising the annual Hiroshima Day peace picnic. In the 1980s, they toured South East London with Buddhist monks in an open top peace bus. Hedy also organized Morning Star bazaars for many years.

Hedy continued to be active after Tony’s death, and was secretary of Forest Hill and Sydenham CND. In this role, she was an organizer of the annual CND Plant Fair, which raised money for the Chernobyl Children’s Fund, and worked with other CND groups on stalls at Lewisham Peoples Day, on the distribution of White Poppies, and on the Remembrance Sunday laying of a peace wreath. She continued to campaign for peace until finally prevented by declining health.

Outside politics, Hedy’s greatest love was folk music and dancing. She was actively involved in a Czech dance group as a dancer and singer for over fifty years, and organized national and international tours returning regularly to Czechoslovakia.

Hedy had a warm and generous personality – she loved people and they loved her. Alongside Diane Gemie, Jim Radford and Gurbakhsh Garcha, she was one of a group of South East London peace activists who remained active into their nineties. They are all very much missed, and their contributions to the peace movement will not be forgotten.

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