- Gerald Holtom
Gerald Herbert Holtom (c
1914 -18 September 1985 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7292252.stm World's best-known protest symbol turns 50] from theBBC News website] cite news |first=Richard |last=Roth |title=The 50th Anniversary Of The Peace Symbol |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/23/sunday/main3960390.shtml |publisher=CBS Interactive Inc. |date=2008-03-23 |accessdate=2008-04-20 ] cite news |first=Richard |last=Roth |title=CBS Sunday Morning, 3/23/08, Origin of the Peace Sign (timecode 5:13) |url=http://www.bushwars.com/img/080323aCBS.wmv |publisher=CBS Interactive Inc. |date=2008-04-20 |accessdate=2008-04-20 ] cite web |url=http://www.bushwars.com/img/HoltomGrave.bmp |title=Holtom gravestone |accessdate=2008-04-20 |format=bitmap image ] ) was a professional designer and artist.A graduate of the
Royal College of Art , Holtom was aconscientious objector inWorld War II . On21 February 1958 he designed the Nuclear Disarmament logo for the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War, Easter 1958 (4-7 April). The logo was not copyrighted, and was available for use by theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament , also founded in 1958; it later became known in the wider world as a general-purposepeace symbol . [ [http://www.cnduk.org/pages/binfo/logo.html The History of the Peace Symbol at the CND website] Retrieved 10 Jan 2008] [ [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article319738.ece Whatever happened to CND? - The Independent, 15 October 2005] ] The design was a combination of the letters "N" (two arms outstretched pointing down at 45 degreess) and "D" (one arm upraised above the head) of theflag semaphore alphabet, standing fornuclear disarmament . [Early CND badges. http://www.cnduk.org/pages/ed/cnd_sym.html]It was at the
Peace News office at 5 Caledonian Road, London. N.1. ("above Housmans Bookshop") that theCND (peace symbol) was adopted. [ [http://www.cnduk.org/pages/ed/cnd_sym.html CND-The disarmament symbol ] ]Holtom died at the age of 71. His daughter Anna Scott is an artist.
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