Nicolas Walter
Encyclopedia
Nicolas Hardy Walter was a British anarchist
and atheist
writer, speaker and activist.
; his father was the neurophysiologist and pioneer of cybernetics, William Grey Walter
. After serving his National Service
in the RAF
(where he learned Russian
at the Joint Services School for Linguists
, and was engaged in SIGINT
), Walter studied history at Exeter College, Oxford
, 1954-1957, afterwards becoming a journalist. He was deputy editor of Which?
(1963-1965); press officer for the British Standards Institution (1965-1967); and chief sub-editor of the Times Literary Supplement (1968-1974). He was also a staff writer for the Good Food Guide
.
Walter was editor of New Humanist, published by the Rationalist Press Association, for a decade, and he was to continue to work in the humanist
, rationalist and secularist movement until his retirement from it in 1999.
In 1973, Walter was diagnosed with testicular cancer
. As a result of the consequent treatment Walter had eventually to use a wheelchair. The cancer was found to have returned shortly after Walter's retirement, and he died very soon afterwards.
Walter was a prolific letter writer to newspapers and magazines, estimating towards the end of his life that he had had over 2,000 published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms such as 'Jean Raison', 'Arthur Freeman' and 'Mary Lewis'.
Walter was a regular user of the British Library
, and was not only the first person through the doors of the British Library's Euston Road
site when it was opened in 1997, but also the first person to complain about it.
Walter also had a reputation for pedant
ry, and when Charles Moore
stepped down as editor of The Spectator, he described Walter as one of the bores he would not miss. But Walter rejected the accusation in a column in New Humanist (Vol 112 (4) Dec 1997 p20):
Walter joined the Labour Party
at University, but had abandoned it for anarchism
and peace activism by 1959.
Walter was a member of Spies for Peace
—the only member to be publicly identified, and only after his death—who in March 1963 broke into Regional Seat of Government
No. 6 (RSG-6), copied documents relating to the Government's plans in the event of nuclear war, and subsequently distributed 3,000 leaflets revealing their contents. The impact was enormous.
In 1966 Walter was imprisoned for two months under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1860, after a protest against British support for the Vietnam War
. As Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
read the lesson (on the subject of beating swords into ploughshares) at a Labour Party
service at the Methodist Church in Brighton
, Walter and friends interrupted by shouting "Hypocrite!"
Walter played a controversial role in the 1987 identification of Michael Randle
and Pat Pottle
as the people who helped George Blake
escape from Wormwood Scrubs
in 1966, five years into a 42-year sentence. Walter had told the story of how the escape was organised by Committee of 100 activists to former MI6 officer H. Montgomery Hyde
, an honorary associate of the Rationalist Press Association, who was writing a biography of Blake. Walter had asked Hyde not to reveal the identities of those involved, but The Sunday Times
worked it out from clues in Hyde's book and revealed the names. Randle and Pottle eventually wrote their own book, The Blake escape: how we freed George Blake and why (1989). They were subsequently arrested and tried in 1991 after 110 MPs signed a motion calling for their prosecution and the right-wing Freedom Association threatened to bring a private prosecution. Famously, although Randle and Pottle's guilt was not in doubt, the jury—"perversely", according to the authorities, but entirely within their rights—acquitted them. Nonetheless, critics regarded Walter's actions as unacceptable, and Albert Meltzer
later commented: "on the whole it was safer to be Walter's enemy than his friend."
.
Walter had a long association with Freedom Press
and was a regular contributor to Freedom among other publications. The last writing he did appeared in Freedom.
A collection of his writings from Freedom and elsewhere was published in 2007 as The Anarchist Past and other essays, edited by David Goodway.
is perhaps better known than his anarchism
.
Walter was appointed Managing Editor of the Rationalist Press Association in 1975, but his progressive disability and the fact he was not, as Bill Cooke puts it, "a born administrator" led to difficulties.
Walter was editor of New Humanist
magazine from February 1975 until July 1984, when Jim Herrick
took over.
In the aftermath of the 1989 fatwa
on Salman Rushdie and his book The Satanic Verses
, Walter (along with William McIlroy
) reformed The Committee Against Blasphemy Law
. It issued a Statement Against Blasphemy Law, signed by over 200 public figures. Walter and Barbara Smoker
were attacked while counter-demonstrating during a Muslim protest against the book in May 1989. Walter's book "Blasphemy Ancient and Modern" put the Rushdie controversy into historical context.
Walter also served as company secretary of GW Foote & Co., publishers of The Freethinker
, and was a vice-president of the National Secular Society
.
Walter occasionally wrote or spoke about how secular humanists might face death – he had done so himself. In a letter to The Guardian
in 1993 (16 September, p. 23), he explained:
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
writer, speaker and activist.
Career overview
Walter was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; his father was the neurophysiologist and pioneer of cybernetics, William Grey Walter
William Grey Walter
W. Grey Walter was a neurophysiologist and robotician.-Overview:Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1910. His ancestry was German/British on his father's side, and American/British on his mother's side. He was brought to England in 1915, and educated at Westminster School and afterwards...
. After serving his National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(where he learned Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
at the Joint Services School for Linguists
Joint Services School for Linguists
The Joint Services School for Linguists was founded in 1951 by the British armed services to provide language training, principally in Russian, and largely to selected conscripts undergoing National Service...
, and was engaged in SIGINT
SIGINT
Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...
), Walter studied history at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, 1954-1957, afterwards becoming a journalist. He was deputy editor of Which?
Which?
Which? is a product-testing and consumer campaigning charity with a magazine, website and various other services run by Which? Ltd ....
(1963-1965); press officer for the British Standards Institution (1965-1967); and chief sub-editor of the Times Literary Supplement (1968-1974). He was also a staff writer for the Good Food Guide
Good Food Guide
The Good Food Guide is an annual guidebook to the best restaurants in the UK, published by Which?books.The Good Food Guide was first published in 1951 by Raymond Postgate, an enthusiastic gourmet, who was appalled by the standard of contemporary catering. He recruited an army of volunteers to...
.
Walter was editor of New Humanist, published by the Rationalist Press Association, for a decade, and he was to continue to work in the humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
, rationalist and secularist movement until his retirement from it in 1999.
In 1973, Walter was diagnosed with testicular cancer
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system.In the United States, between 7,500 and 8,000 diagnoses of testicular cancer are made each year. In the UK, approximately 2,000 men are diagnosed each year. Over his lifetime, a man's risk of...
. As a result of the consequent treatment Walter had eventually to use a wheelchair. The cancer was found to have returned shortly after Walter's retirement, and he died very soon afterwards.
Walter was a prolific letter writer to newspapers and magazines, estimating towards the end of his life that he had had over 2,000 published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms such as 'Jean Raison', 'Arthur Freeman' and 'Mary Lewis'.
Walter was a regular user of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, and was not only the first person through the doors of the British Library's Euston Road
Euston Road
Euston Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, England, and forms part of the A501. It is part of the New Road from Paddington to Islington, and was opened as part of the New Road in 1756...
site when it was opened in 1997, but also the first person to complain about it.
Walter also had a reputation for pedant
Pedant
A pedant is a person who is excessively concerned with formalism and precision, or who makes a show of his or her learning.-Etymology:The English language word "pedant" comes from the French pédant or its older mid-15th Century Italian source pedante, "teacher, schoolmaster"...
ry, and when Charles Moore
Charles Moore (journalist)
Charles Hilary Moore is a British journalist and former editor of The Daily Telegraph.-Early life:He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge where he was awarded a BA in History and was a friend of Oliver Letwin.-Career:A former editor of The Spectator , the Sunday Telegraph and The...
stepped down as editor of The Spectator, he described Walter as one of the bores he would not miss. But Walter rejected the accusation in a column in New Humanist (Vol 112 (4) Dec 1997 p20):
I sometimes feel that I have become the Gradgrind of the Humanist movement. 'Now, what I want is Facts', says Mr Gradgrind at the beginning of Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' novel Hard Times. 'Facts alone are wanted in life.' As a matter of fact, I don't think facts alone are wanted, but I do think they are a good start to any discussion.
Walter joined the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
at University, but had abandoned it for anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and peace activism by 1959.
Walter in the peace movement
Walter was heavily involved in the peace movement, being a founder member of the Committee of 100.Walter was a member of Spies for Peace
Spies for Peace
The Spies for Peace was a group of anti-war activists associated with the Committee of 100 who publicized government preparations for rule after a nuclear war. In 1963 they broke into a secret government bunker, Regional Seat of Government Number 6 at Warren Row, near Reading, where they...
—the only member to be publicly identified, and only after his death—who in March 1963 broke into Regional Seat of Government
Regional Seat of Government
Regional Seats of Government or RSGs were the best known aspect of Britain's Civil Defence preparations against Nuclear War. In fact, however, naming conventions changed over the years as strategies in Whitehall changed....
No. 6 (RSG-6), copied documents relating to the Government's plans in the event of nuclear war, and subsequently distributed 3,000 leaflets revealing their contents. The impact was enormous.
In 1966 Walter was imprisoned for two months under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1860, after a protest against British support for the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. As Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
read the lesson (on the subject of beating swords into ploughshares) at a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
service at the Methodist Church in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Walter and friends interrupted by shouting "Hypocrite!"
Walter played a controversial role in the 1987 identification of Michael Randle
Michael Randle
Dr. Michael Randle is best known as a peace campaigner and peace researcher, one of the pioneers of nonviolent direct action in Britain, and also for his role in helping the Soviet spy George Blake escape from a British prison in 1966....
and Pat Pottle
Pat Pottle
Patrick Pottle was a founder member of the Committee of 100, an anti-nuclear direct action group which broke away from CND....
as the people who helped George Blake
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
escape from Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison)
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B men's prison, located in the Wormwood Scrubs area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, in inner west London, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service....
in 1966, five years into a 42-year sentence. Walter had told the story of how the escape was organised by Committee of 100 activists to former MI6 officer H. Montgomery Hyde
Harford Hyde
Harford Montgomery Hyde , born in Belfast, was a barrister, politician , author and biographer, who lost his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a result of campaigning for homosexual law reform.-Background:Born on 14 August 1907, on the Malone Road in Belfast, Hyde was schooled...
, an honorary associate of the Rationalist Press Association, who was writing a biography of Blake. Walter had asked Hyde not to reveal the identities of those involved, but The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
worked it out from clues in Hyde's book and revealed the names. Randle and Pottle eventually wrote their own book, The Blake escape: how we freed George Blake and why (1989). They were subsequently arrested and tried in 1991 after 110 MPs signed a motion calling for their prosecution and the right-wing Freedom Association threatened to bring a private prosecution. Famously, although Randle and Pottle's guilt was not in doubt, the jury—"perversely", according to the authorities, but entirely within their rights—acquitted them. Nonetheless, critics regarded Walter's actions as unacceptable, and Albert Meltzer
Albert Meltzer
Albert Meltzer was an anarcho-communist activist and writer.-Early life:Meltzer was born in London, and attracted to anarchism at the age of fifteen as a direct result of taking boxing lessons . The Labour MP for Edmonton, Edith Summerskill was virulently anti-boxing and his school governors at...
later commented: "on the whole it was safer to be Walter's enemy than his friend."
Walter the anarchist
Walter's book About Anarchism was first published in 1969. It went through many editions and has been translated into many languages. A revised edition was published in 2002, with a foreword by his daughter, the journalist and feminist writer Natasha WalterNatasha Walter
Natasha Walter is a British feminist writer and human rights activist. She is the author of Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism and The New Feminism , and is the director of Women for Refugee Women ....
.
Walter had a long association with Freedom Press
Freedom Press
The Freedom Press is an anarchist publishing house in Whitechapel, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1886, it is the largest anarchist publishing house in the nation and the oldest of its kind in the English speaking world. It is based at 84b Whitechapel High Street in the East End of London...
and was a regular contributor to Freedom among other publications. The last writing he did appeared in Freedom.
A collection of his writings from Freedom and elsewhere was published in 2007 as The Anarchist Past and other essays, edited by David Goodway.
Walter the rationalist, humanist and secularist
In Britain, Walter's humanismHumanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
is perhaps better known than his anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
.
Walter was appointed Managing Editor of the Rationalist Press Association in 1975, but his progressive disability and the fact he was not, as Bill Cooke puts it, "a born administrator" led to difficulties.
Walter was editor of New Humanist
New Humanist
New Humanist is a monthly magazine published by the Rationalist Association in the UK. It has been in print for 125 years; starting out life as Watts's Literary Guide, founded by C. A. Watts in November 1885....
magazine from February 1975 until July 1984, when Jim Herrick
Jim Herrick
Jim Herrick is a British Humanist and secularist. He studied history and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and then worked as a school teacher for seven years...
took over.
In the aftermath of the 1989 fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
on Salman Rushdie and his book The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters...
, Walter (along with William McIlroy
William McIlroy
William J. McIlroy is a British secularist and atheist activist, writer and editor.He was for many years editor of The Freethinker and General Secretary of the National Secular Society...
) reformed The Committee Against Blasphemy Law
Blasphemy law in the United Kingdom
This article describes the blasphemy law in the United Kingdom.-England and Wales:The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. See the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006....
. It issued a Statement Against Blasphemy Law, signed by over 200 public figures. Walter and Barbara Smoker
Barbara Smoker
Barbara Smoker is a British Humanist activist and freethought advocate. She is also former President of the National Secular Society , former Chair of the British Voluntary Euthanasia Society and current Honorary Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in the United Kingdom.-...
were attacked while counter-demonstrating during a Muslim protest against the book in May 1989. Walter's book "Blasphemy Ancient and Modern" put the Rushdie controversy into historical context.
Walter also served as company secretary of GW Foote & Co., publishers of The Freethinker
The Freethinker (journal)
The Freethinker is a British secular humanist magazine, founded by G.W. Foote in 1881. It is the world's oldest surviving freethought publication.It has always taken an unapologetically atheist, anti-religious stance...
, and was a vice-president of the National Secular Society
National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...
.
Walter occasionally wrote or spoke about how secular humanists might face death – he had done so himself. In a letter to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in 1993 (16 September, p. 23), he explained:
-
- All of us will die, and most of us will suffer before we do so. "The last act is bloody, however fine the rest of the play may be", said Pascal. Raging against the dying of the light may be good art, but is bad advice. "Why me?" may be a natural question, but it prompts a natural answer: "Why not?" Religion may promise life everlasting, but we should grow up and accept that life has an end as well as a beginning.
Publications
- Humanism: what's in the word (1997). London: Rationalist Press Association. ISBN 0-301-97001-7 (also published as Humanism: finding meaning in the word by Prometheus Books, 1998, ISBN 1-57392-209-9)
- Blasphemy, ancient and modern (1990). London: Rationalist Press Association. ISBN 0-301-90001-9
- About Anarchism (1969). London: Freedom PressFreedom PressThe Freedom Press is an anarchist publishing house in Whitechapel, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1886, it is the largest anarchist publishing house in the nation and the oldest of its kind in the English speaking world. It is based at 84b Whitechapel High Street in the East End of London...
. (Updated edition published by Freedom Press in 2002, ISBN 0-900384-90-5) - Nonviolent Resistance: Men Against War (1963).
External links
- Guardian obituary by Donald RooumDonald RooumDonald Rooum is an English anarchist cartoonist and writer. He has a long association with Freedom Press who have published seven volumes of his Wildcat cartoons....
- 'How My Father Spied For Peace', Natasha Walter on her father's involvement in the exposure of the secret 'Regional Seats of Government'.
- http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/polin/polin043.pdfThe Right to Be Wrong. Essay by Nicolas Walter. Libertarian AllianceLibertarian AllianceThe Libertarian Alliance comprises two libertarian think tanks in Great Britain that promote free-market economics and civil liberties...
Political Notes No. 43, 1989] - Nicolas Walter: an appreciation of his contribution to secular humanism. Sheffield Humanist Society, 2000
- Nicolas Walter papers at the International Institute of Social History