Hugh Brock

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Hugh Brock (1914–1985) was a British pacifist who edited Peace News from 1955 to 1964. He promoted nonviolent direct action and helped found the Direct Action Committee, a precursor to the Committee of 100.

Brock was born on 15 May 1914 and trained as a printer. He was a conscientious objector in World War II. In May 1940, as new defence rules and calls to ban Peace News grew, the magazine’s printer stopped printing it and a major distributor refused to carry it. Brock, editor Humphrey Moore, and his brother Ashley kept printing and, with peace groups, built a voluntary distribution network. He served six months in prison in 1941; during this time his wife Eileen gave birth to their son Jeremy. They later had a daughter, Carolyn, in 1944.

He became Peace News assistant editor in 1946 and editor in 1955, steering the paper toward campaigns for nuclear disarmament, nonviolent action, and anti-colonial freedom. In 1955 he brought in American scholar Gene Sharp to cover the Civil Rights Movement. Peace News was linked to the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) until 1961, when the formal tie ended. Brock left the paper in 1964.

From 1946 to 1952, Peace News published many articles about Gandhi and his ideas for the West. In the 1950s Brock helped grow nonviolent protest in Britain. The PPU set up a Nonviolence Commission in 1949 and, in 1951, Operation Gandhi to promote nonviolent action, including protests against US troops in Britain and Britain’s atomic weapons program. Brock was secretary of Operation Gandhi, which began with a sit-down outside the War Office in January 1952. Protests followed at Aldermaston and other sites, and the 1952 Aldermaston march inspired larger marches from 1958.

In 1957 Brock helped organise protests against Britain’s H-bomb tests on Christmas Island. The Direct Action Committee formed and ran the 1958 Aldermaston March. When the Committee of 100 formed in 1960 to widen civil disobedience, the Direct Action Committee merged into it. Brock remained active in peace work after leaving Peace News, and his papers were donated to the University of Bradford by his wife. The Hugh Brock Memorial Library in Kitwe, Zambia, honors him.