Donald Rooum

Donald Rooum (born April 20, 1928) is an English anarchist cartoonist and writer. He has a long association with Freedom Press who have published seven volumes of his Wildcat cartoons.

In 1963 he played a key role in exposing Harold Challenor, a corrupt police officer who tried to frame Rooum. 20 years earlier Challenor had been one of only two of the original six SAS to survive Operation Speedwell in 1943, spending 7 months deep behind German lines.

Biography

Donald Rooum is a native of Bradford. Rooum registered as a conscientious objector. He was then pressurised by his family to complete two years military service starting in January 1947. A resettlement grant following this service allowed him to study Commercial Design at Bradford Regional Art School from 1949 to 1953.^[1]

Rooums portrait by Frank Lisle is in Wakefield Gallery [3] name=Wakefield>"Portrait of Donald Rooum by Frank Lisle", Object of the Month, April 2008 Wakefield Council</ref> From 1954 to 1966 he worked as a layout artist and typographer in various London advertising agencies, then as a lecturer in Typographic Design at London College of Printing until 1983. Rooum took a degree with the Open University from 1973 to 1979, and was awarded a first class degree in Life Sciences in 1980. He was elected Member of the Institute of Biology (incorporated into the Society of Biology in October 2009) and became a Chartered Biologist in 2004.

Rooum lived with Irene Brown from 1954 to 1983 and they had four children together (Josephine Anne born 1956, Penelope Jane 1958 (died 1960), Mathew Donald 1960, Rebecca Jane 1962).

Activism

Rooum records that he first became interested in anarchism in 1944 when he visited Speaker's Corner in London while on a Ministry of Food scheme which used schoolboys to pick hops in Kent. He subscibed to War Commentary beginning a connection with Freedom Press which has continued for over 60 years. During that time he has been a writer for and an editor of Freedom, the name to which War Commentary reverted after the end of the Second World War.^[2]

In 1949, Rooum began to raise his profile in activist circles, participating the annual Anarchist Summer School.^[1] Indeed, when one of his art tutors Frank Lisle painted Rooum's portrait in 1952, the working title for the picture was The Anarchist.^[3] Rooum was an outdoor speaker, first in Market Street in Bradford then at Speaker's Corner. He was a founding member of the Malatesta Club, an anarchist social club and venue opened in London on May Day 1954 where Rooum and Irene were volunteer workers.^[1]

In the long-running feud between Vernon Richards and those associated with Freedom on the one hand, and Albert Meltzer and those associated with Black Flag on the other, Rooum's loyalties were with Richards and Freedom.

Role in the Challenor affair

In 1963 Rooum was an Anarchist and member of the National Council of Civil Liberties. He had, by good fortune, read some material on forensic science.

Rooum exposed police corruption during demonstrations against the London visit by King Paul of Greece and Queen Frederika. Rooum proved that an offensive weapon had been planted on him.

On 11 July, Rooum demonstrated against the Royal party at Claridge's hotel. His banner "Lambrakis RIP" was confiscated by a police officer and read by four plain clothes men. According to Rooum he asked "Can I have my banner back?"

Rooum:- "This big one with the short-back-and-sides stepped forward. 'Can you have your what back?'

"'My banner.'

"He smiled at me. 'You're fucking nicked, my old beauty,' he said, and gave me a terrific clout on the ear."^[4]

At the police station, the arresting officer, Detective Sergeant Harold Challenor, "took from his pocket a screwed-up newspaper, which he opened with a flourish. Inside was a piece of brick. His smile widened. 'There you are, my old beauty. Carrying an offensive weapon. You can get two years for that.'"^[4]

Rooum gave his clothes to his defence solicitor Stanley Clinton Davis for analysis. He convinced the magistrate that, because no brick dust was found in his pocket, no brick could have been there at the time of the alleged offence.^[5][6] There followed a public enquiry that criticized the police and led to the imprisonment of three officers.^[7][8] Rooum received £500 compensation (£7,900 at 2011 value) and other convictions were overturned.^[6]

Challenor was deemed mentally unfit to plead and was committed to Netherne mental hospital. A subsequent enquiry found that he had probably been suffering from the onset of paranoid schizophrenia for some months before the incident.

The lack of any successful prosecution against him was seen by some as evidence of further establishment corruption. ..^[9] Another view was that being 'Sectioned', medicated and with Electroconvulsive 'therapy' was far worse than any prison sentence could ever have been.

Cartoonist

Rooum's first regular comic strip was Scissor Bill which appeared in the anarchist paper The Syndicalist from 1952 after Philip Sansom invited him to provide a regular cartoon. The name of the strip derived from an IWW name for a bosses' yes-man. From 1960, his cartoons started appearing in such outlets as She, The Daily Mirror, Private Eye and The Spectator.^[1] Rooum has had a long relationship, with interruptions, with Peace News, his first work appearing for them in 1962. Originals of his cartoons for Peace News up to 1971, together with some for The Spectator, are stored at the British Cartoon Archive.

In 1974, Sansom again invited Rooum to provide a cartoon for a monthly magazine he was working on. This was Wildcat and the request was for a cartoon featuring a character of the same name. Wildcat ceased publishing in 1975 but, by 1980, Sansom had returned to working on Freedom and persuaded Rooum and the editorial collective to revive the Wildcat comic strip which has been a fixture ever since.

Rooum has drawn the Sprite strip for The Skeptic magazine since 1987. Books illustrated include Don't you believe it! by John Radford. An exhibition of his work was held at Conway Hall in 2008.

Bibliography

As author and cartoonist

• Wildcat Anarchist Comics, 1985, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 0900384301
• "Gandalf's Garden" in: Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament ed: Tony Bennett, 1987, London, Knockabout Comics, ISBN 0861660544
• Wildcat Strikes Again, 1989, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 0900384476
• Wildcat: ABC of Bosses,1991, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 0900384603
• Health Service Wildcat, 1994, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 0900384735
• Twenty Year Millennium Wildcat: Anarchist Comics 1999, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 0900384972
• Wildcat: Anarchists Against Bombs, 2003, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 1904491014
• Wildcat Keeps Going, 2011, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 9781904491149

As writer

• "Sir Cyril Burt and typography: a re-evaluation" James Hartley and Donald Rooum 1983 British Journal of Psychology 74, 203-212
• "Karl von Frisch and the 'Spot Codes' for marking insects". 1989, Bee World 70:120-126
• What Is Anarchism?: An Introduction, London, Freedom Press, ISBN 0900384662
• Introduction to Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (4th Edition) by Peter Kropotkin London, Freedom Press, 2009 ISBN 1904491103

As illustrator

• Classics of Humour (Dickens, Charles; O'Brien, Flann; Saki; Thurber, James; Twain, Mark; Waugh, Evelyn; Wilde, Oscar, Wodehouse, P G, et al., authors); O'Mara, Michael (ed), Donald Rooum (Illustrator) 1976 Book Club Associates ASIN B0010S72HK, 1976 Constable and Company ISBN 0094614407
• English Lessons One Michael Hapgood (author), Donald Rooum (illustrator); 1981 Heinemann Educational Books ISBN 0435104004
• The innocent Anthropologist by Nigel Barley (author), Donald Rooum (illustrator); 1983 British Museum Publications !SBN 0714180548
• Don't You Believe It!: Some Things Everyone Knows That Actually Ain't So by John Radford (Author), Donald Rooum (Illustrator), London 2007, Stepney Green Press, ISBN 0955443105
• Citizenship Cartoons (2003) by Alastair Gunn (Author), Donald Rooum (Author) Classroom Resources ISBN 184106789X

As editor

• "Freedom": A Hundred Years, October 1886-October 1986 London, Freedom Press, 1986 ISBN 0900384352
• March to Death: Drawings By John Olday, London, Freedom Press, 1995 ISBN 0900384808

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Sansom, Philip "Introduction" in Wildcat Anarchist Comics by Donald Rooum, London, Freedom Press, pp.2-12.
2. ^ Rooum, Donald "Freedom, Freedom Press and Freedom Bookshop" in Information for Social Change Number 27 Summer 2008, pp.29-36 ISSN 1364-694X
3. ^ "Portrait of Donald Rooum by Frank Lisle", Object of the Month, April 2008 Wakefield Council
4. ^ ^{a b} Rooum, Donald, "I've dislodged a bit of brick", Anarchy, No.36, Vol.4. No.2, February 1964
5. ^ Link to article on Challenor, mentioning Rooum's role in exposing him
6. ^ ^{a b} James Morton (1993) Bent Coppers pp.118-9
7. ^ Driver, C., The Disarmers, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1964
8. ^ Parliamentary question by Shirley Summerskill to Home Office ministers [1]
9. ^ Parliamentary question to Attorney General re Challenor by Arthur Lewis[2]

External links

• Sybil's Nest - A page containing examples and details of how to get Wildcat books.
• Cartoons placed online by the British Cartoon Archive
• Portrait of Rooum by Frank Lisle.

The Challenor Case by Mary Grigg; Harmondsworth 1965 Penguin Books Report of Enquiry" by Mr A.E.James, QC, 1965 HMSO, Cmnd 2735 The Jester and the Court by Edward Robey; London 1976 William Kimber & Co. Ltd ISBN 0718304942 Tanky Challenor, SAS and the Met by Harold Challoner with Edward Draper, London 1990, Leo Cooper ISBN 0850521426

Persondata
Name	Rooum, Donald
Alternative names
Short description	British anarchist cartoonist & writer.
Date of birth	1928-04-20
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death