Origin of the Scottish CND

The following points are based on an archive in the Mitchell Library of correspondence relating to SCND 1956- 60.

Scottish CND was formed at a meeting in Simpson House Edinburgh on 22 March 1958.

Before Scottish CND there was an Edinburgh Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Tests (ECANWT). This was initially formed by a group of staff and parents, including Denis Carrabine and Ronald Macintosh, at the Rudolf Steiner school in Edinburgh. The earliest reference to ECANWT in the file is a letter from ECANWT to the Scotsman on 5 or 6 April 1957. A National Committee for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Tests was set up in London in February 1957. ECANWT wrote letters to the Scotsman on several occasions. These resulted in letters of support. The group organised a public meeting in the Usher Hall on 24 February 1958.

In November 1957 JB Priestly wrote an article in the New Statesman on “Britain and the Nuclear Bomb” which provoked a massive response. The editor proposed a meeting to set up a mass movement against nuclear weapons, which was held on 16 January 1958. This led to a meeting on 17 February at which CND was created.

In Scotland Mairi Stewart, Secretary of ECANWT, wrote a letter to the New Statesman which was published on 21 December 1957. This resulted in several people from across Scotland writing to ECANWT to indicate their support. At the time ECANWT had a membership of 350 some of whom were from outside Edinburgh. Between 1 and 9 January 1958 Mairi Stewart wrote to their members outside Edinburgh asking if they were interested in a proposal to make ECANWT a Scottish-wide Council, possibly with a wider aim of abolition of nuclear weapons. This idea was well received. In February 1958 Mairi Stewart was writing to say that these changes would be proposed at the ECANWT AGM on 31 March. The minutes of this meeting show that on 22 March in Simpson House, Edinburgh, a meeting had taken place to create the Scottish Council for Nuclear Disarmament (SCND).

The name “Council” continued to be used until at least 1960. In December 1960 Keith Bovey suggested a change to “Campaign” but the files do not show whether this was accepted.

The first meeting of the Executive Committee of SCND was on 15 April 1958 in Simpson House, Edinburgh. At this meeting it was reported that the ECANWT had become the Edinburgh Council for Nuclear Disarmament at their AGM. It would appear that the 31 March meeting agreed to create both a Scottish Council and an Edinburgh Council. At the first Executive meeting it was also reported that another earlier organisation, the Glasgow Committee against H Bombs, had changed its name and become part of SCND.

The first London to Aldermaston march was on 4-7 April 1958. The files available in the Mitchell Library don’t say much on this, but there may have been a separate file.

Correspondence in the archive file indicates that there was some interest from across Scotland and several moves to form local groups.

There is reference at the first Executive to a meeting in the near future in Aberdeen. There is correspondence from Aberdeen CND on 22 May 1958. The Aberdeen group did not initially formally affiliate to SCND and this was still an issue in correspondence in 1959.

The Iona Community Youth Associates organised a meeting on Nuclear Disarmament in Glasgow on 13 th April 1958 and a second meeting in Dundee in late April or early May. There was interest in forming a Dundee group and there is correspondence from Kenneth Meekison of Arbroath, on behalf of a Dundee group, to SCND in July 1958.

In January 1959 there were “local councils” of SCND in Glasgow, Edinburgh and East Fife and it was hoped that other councils would be formed in Dundee, Perth and Paisley.

Over the summer and autumn of 1958 a touring exhibition “No Place to Hide” by artist Naomi Mitchison was displayed at a number of venues across Scotland. There were some practical problems because of the size of the exhibition.

On 26 October 1958 there was a public meeting in St Andrews Halls Glasgow organised by SCND.

On 2 May 1959 there was an SCND march in Glasgow from Trinity Church, Claremont Street to Kelvingrove Park.

A series of public meetings were planned for June 1959 in Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ayr.

The first Secretary of SCND was Ken Hamnett and the Chair was Roddy MacFarquhar. Keith Bovey and Neil Carmichael attended the first meeting. Others listed in the Executive sederunt are Denis Carrabine, Campbell Wilkie (Glasgow), Ronald Macintosh, Roberts and Millan. The first Executive meeting noted that the following had agreed to be sponsors of SCND: Dr Dott, Professor Ellis, Very Rev George MacLeod, Naomi Mitchison and Oliver Brown. Early literature shows the following additional sponsors: Dr James Robertson Justice, Sir Compton Mackenzie, Dr Ronald Meek, Alexander Moffat, RE Muirhead, Lord John Boyd Orr, Dr RLM Synge and Prof CH Waddington. The Honorary President was Professor N Kemmer.

There is interesting correspondence between Ian Kemmet, SCND Secretary, and Archbishop Gray. The Archbishop said that there was no impediment from Catholics supporting CND but he thought it was “imprudent for a priest to be publicly associated with the movement”.