By Liz Tunmer
Greenham Gals, 1981
I was living in Brighton when the photo was taken – yes it would have been around 1981. I went to Brighton in 1969 to train as a teacher, married in 1972 and had two sons in 1977 and 1980. I used to go to a weekly Mother and Toddlers group where I met most of the women in the picture. One became a great friend and still is today, though she now lives in Devon. Another became a great friend through us teaching together – our families grew up together, until she and her Family eventually emigrated to Canada. She sadly died of breast cancer a few years ago and I miss her still. At one point there was a Peace Camp in Brighton and I can remember her arriving with great cauldrons of soup.
Through getting to know each other at the toddlers’ group a Parents’ CND group was formed and several of us in the photo would get together in each other’s homes, planning activities, making banners, attending marches in London, always with the kids who weren’t already at school. Many of the kids attended meetings of the Woodcraft Folk – all very pc, though I don’t think we coined that phrase then. A highlight was day trips by coach from Brighton to Greenham, and one weekend in a bender. I was able to go because I had a kind and supportive husband who was more than happy to have the boys while I went off. I can remember I didn’t possess strong walking boots then, had to wear wellies and my feet were always like blocks of ice. Once there was a coach-trip arranged from Brighton to Greenham that was called Grey Heads for Greenham. My dear Mum went, knowing nobody else on the coach, “to see what you keep going on about”. I was so proud of her.
In the early days when males were allowed to visit, I took my son, then aged about 6. When we got home, I asked him to draw a picture and write something about it. What had grabbed his attention most were the enormous police horses and his picture graphically demonstrated that.
Now in our 70s my friends and I still talk about those days, and happily my boys have maintained a hope for peace into their now middle age.
“Old and strong, we go on and on and on”.