Janet Bloomfield

1953–2007

Mother – Soul Sister – Friend

I had heard much about Janet Bloomfield, long before I met her. She took my place in the office at West Midlands CND after I left the UK in 1985 and went on to become the Chair of National CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). But I didn’t meet her until 1994 at a Non-Proliferation Treaty conference at the UN in Geneva. There, Janet, Pamela Meidell and I swore – like the three witches of Macbeth – that we were soul sisters. Now our sister Janet has left us. She died on April 2nd, suddenly.

I could list all the wonderful things she did, but there isn’t enough space for that and it wouldn’t really tell you who she was. These are the bare facts: She was active in the movement since 1981, Chair of CND from 1993 to 1996, co-founder of the Abolition 2000 network, co-organiser of the Atomic Mirror pilgrimage in 1996, worked with Oxford Research Group for over ten years. And she was Richard’s wife, Lucie’s and Robin’s mother.

But Janet’s real achievement was simply being herself. She was an expert at integration, she inspired people to work together. She loved. She brought sunshine into every room she entered with that enormous smile she wore, even in the darkest rooms of the UN basement where we worked. She was able to pull us back to more reasonable ground when we were going off on crazy tangents. She listened and empathised like only a mother can. She was a Quaker – and so she was a Friend. Janet’s love lives on in all those that she loved and who loved her, and they were very many. Xanthe Hall

Janet’s memorial site: http://janetbloomfield.com.

Making Peace and Security NGOs More Effective, by Janet Bloomfield, posthumously published by Oxford Research Group; www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/winningforpeace.pdf.