Alan Albon (24 August 1921 – 30 March 1989) was a British anarchist, pacifist, conscientious objector and publisher. He was born in Edmonton, London on 24 August 1921 and died at Heathrow, Greater London, on 30 March 1989.Walter 1989, p. 39.
Early life Albon was born into a Quaker familySF 1989. Sansom 1989 identified 'SF' as 'Sam Fanaroff', who was born in Latvia and who had arrived in London via South Africa. which was concerned with pacifism.SF 1989. In the First World War both his father and his uncle were conscientious objectors, for which they were imprisoned.Walter 1989. His family background and the injustices of the capitalist system were the major influences which determined his political identification as an adult. Around the early 1930s, anarchist Albert Meltzer encountered Albon in London as the son of the Mayor of Edmonton, London, and a pacifist, when he was a member of the Labour Party.Meltzer 1996, p. 21. However, later Albon joined the youth section of the Independent Labour Party, in which as a pacifist, he was in the minority.Meltzer 1996, p. 22.
On leaving school, Albon worked for a very short time in an office, after which he lived in various communities. During the war years he lived in The Barn House, an agricultural community outside Brockweir in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire as a conscientious objector,Albon 1989. where, because agriculture was classified as a reserved occupation, he avoided conscription into the army.SF 1989.
In 1945, Albon met Joan Carter at a meeting of the Peace Pledge Union, after which they were married in 1947 and built their own home, a bungalow, on a plot of two acres in Suffolk.SF 1989. Fellow anarchist Philip Sansom documented: 'He lived in a caravan, worked on a farm, and in the evenings and weekends he built the house from foundation to roof, complete with plumbing, electric wiring, sewage, the lot, all with his own hands.'Sansom 1989.
Most of Albon's life was concerned with the practical application of anarchism.Sansom 1989. As his brother identified, he was a builder.Albon 1989. For example, he converted the premises of the anarchist newspaper Freedom from an old industrial building in the East End first for a bookshop and then for a printshop.'Walter 1989. Woodcock (1982: 268) described the 'old industrial building in the East End' in more detail as 'the antiquated printing house in the East End that the Freedom Group had bought for a song in a bankruptcy sale.' Also the building was 84a Whitechapel High Street, that Vernon Richards bought (with 84b) in 1968 (Goodway 2019, p. 12), which needed its floors to be strengthened to take the weight of publications (VR, 1982). And he converted two Martello towers into houses, which his brother considered was perhaps 'his biggest job'.Albon 1989. He also had several political commitments. For example, for more than thirty years he contributed a column, 'Land Notes' to the anarchist newspaper Freedom.Walter 1989. Also, as fellow anarchist Nicolas Walter claimed, he was 'green long before there was a Green Movement' and was 'later a founder of the Green Anarchist paper.'Walter 1989.Connor 2004 documented that in 1984 Albon met with Marcus Christo and Richard Hunt to form a magazine entitled Green Anarchist. He attended the Grosvenor Square demonstration about the Vietnam war, and he visited the Greenham Common Peace Camp.Sansom 1989. He participated in the squatting movement. He took a leading part in the City Farm movement. And he ended his working life as the maintenance manager of the Patchwork housing co-operative.Walter 1989.
Notes
References
Goodway, David. "Introduction". In
See also Anarchism in the United Kingdom