Ann Pettitt (born 1947) is an English activist. With other women she started the

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life ...

by marching from Cardiff to

RAF Greenham Common Royal Air Force Greenham Common or more simply RAF Greenham Common is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station in the civil parishes of Greenham and Thatcham in the England, English county of Berkshire. The airfi ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

in 1981. She published the 2006 book ''Walking to Greenham''.

Life

Pettitt was born in 1947 in

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few miles south of the Lake District Lake District National Park, National Park and j ...

in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

, England. She studied English at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, then

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

in the East End of London from 1969 until 1977, working as a teacher and a legal clerk. She moved to a

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

Llanpumsaint Llanpumsaint (; Welsh "Llan" church + "pum" five + "saint" saint(s)) is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. In the 2001 UK Census, Llanpumsaint community had a population of 595. It is not to be confused with Pumsaint, a small v ...

, Wales and participated in the anti-nuclear movement. MDP Greenhamcommon1982

After reading a newspaper article about the USA putting nuclear cruise missiles at

, England, Pettitt was outraged and decided to organise a march to the base from Cardiff. She joined with three other women and marched 120 miles under the name Women for Life on Earth in 1981. The protest was the beginning of the

, which lasted until 2000, having seen the last cruise missile leave in 1991. Since she had her life and family in Wales, Pettitt did not live at the camp and last visited it in 1984. In 1982, she organised a peace visit to the USSR with a group of women, meeting the official

Soviet Peace Committee The Soviet Peace Committee (SPC, also known as Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace, SCDP, ) was a state-sponsored organization responsible for coordinating peace movements active in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1949 and existed until t ...

and independent groups. She published a book entitled ''Walking to Greenham'' in 2006. The previous year, she set up a charity called Safer Birth In Chad to train midwives in birthing practices.

Selected works

References

External Links

BBC Film interviewing Pettitt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettitt, Ann 1947 births People from Ulverston English anti–nuclear weapons activists 20th-century English writers 21st-century English writers Smallholders Alumni of the University of Bristol 20th-century squatters Living people