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Pat Arrowsmith

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The Resume

    (March 2, 1930-September 27, 2023)
    Born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Margaret Arrowsmith
    Founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND; 1957)
    Organizer of the first Aldermaston March against nuclear weapons (1958)
    Founding member of the Committee of 100 (1960) that organized sit-ins against nuclear weapons
    Joined the Troops Out movement advocating for the withdrawal of the British military from Northern Ireland
    Served eleven prison sentences for various protests
    Published several novels and poetry collections

Why she might be annoying:

    In order to meet an inheritance condition in her father’s will, she wed poet Donald Gardner, then had the marriage annulled a day later.
    Her appeal to the European Commission of Human Rights of her sentence for handing out leaflets to British soldiers urging them to refuse to serve in Northern Ireland was rejected, with the Commission calling the law she was convicted under ‘a necessary restriction on the exercise of free speech in the interests of national security and for the prevention of disorder.’ (1978)
    She ran unsuccessfully for Parliament several times as a third party candidate.
    After one loss, she kept heckling winner James Callaghan throughout his acceptance speech, prompting Callaghan to quip that this the first time he had ‘conducted a duet in returning a vote of thanks.’ (1979)

Why she might not be annoying:

    She donated the money she inherited from her father to charities.
    She was force fed in prison when she went on a hunger strike (1961).
    She was the first Briton to be named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
    She joked that being imprisoned was ‘a cinch after Cheltenham Ladies’ College.’
    She continued organizing anti-nuclear weapon protests into her late 80s.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2023, as of last week, Out of 65 Votes: 64.62% Annoying