OBITUARIES
- WILTON WILLIS
by Maire Leadbeater
Peace Researcher 34 – July 2007
Wilton Willis was never an ABC member but that
doesn’t matter. He was a veteran peace activist and one of the founders of the Peace
Squadron which bravely confronted US nuclear warships and submarines on
Auckland Harbour in the 1970s and 80s. It is entirely due to people such as him
that this country became and remains nuclear free. For that alone, he deserves
the gratitude of us all. It is entirely appropriate that in 2007, when Labour
politicians are patting themselves on the back on the occasion of the 20th
anniversary of the Nuclear Free Act, that we honour those whose bravery and
determination actually made it possible.
I knew him as a member of the Campaign Against
Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) well nigh continuously from 1982 until his
death in July 2006, missing only the few years when the family was living in Australia. His
wife, Helene, told me, after his death: “He always read Watchdog from cover to
cover and we often discussed the articles”. He was an active member and regular
donor to CAFCA and he made a point of attending my meetings whenever I spoke in
Auckland in recent years. In 1993, when I did my first national speaking tour,
Wilton organised my public meeting and local newspaper interview in Warkworth
(the Rodney Times gave me the front page lead) and I had the pleasure of being
hosted overnight by his family. My deepest condolences to Helene and their kids,
and my admiration to Wilton for a life well lived. This obituary was first
published in Foreign Control Watchdog 113, December 2006. MH.
Wilton Willis cut a striking figure, always
impeccably dressed even when he was in casual clothes, his beard carefully
trimmed, and his voice deep. He was 80 when he died but I doubt he ever saw
himself as getting old and the last time I saw him a few months before his
death, he seemed as energetic as ever even if his speech was a little slower on
account of a small stroke. Wilton never lost the sense of urgency for putting
our world to rights and would make his case so firmly that some found him
overwhelming. But looking back it was a small price to pay alongside his great
contributions. To me he was a warm and loyal friend who offered support and
encouragement especially when I was a spokesperson for Auckland Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was also a stalwart
supporter and participant in the activities of the East Timor Independence
Committee and the Indonesia Human Rights Committee.
I didn’t get to know Wilton Willis properly
until the early 1980s, although our paths must have crossed earlier. Wilton was
one of the founding members of the Auckland Peace Squadron established in 1975
and we must have attended many of the same meetings as sea and land protests
against visiting US warships were being planned. Our daughters attended the
same city kindergarten and we quickly found that we were fellow anti-Springbok
tour activists unlike most of the other parents! It was lovely to get to know
Wilton’s beloved Helene, daughter Madeleine, (same age as my Jennifer), and the
twins who were then babies: Fraser and Conrad. Wilton has a daughter, Sarah,
from a previous marriage and four grandchildren. Many years ago he suffered the
tragedy of losing a son, Martin who was killed in a traffic accident in his
late teens.
Wilton’s anti-war commitment was forged
from direct experience. He was born in Whitburn, County Durham, in the UK, and
moved with his family to Cornwall around the time of the outbreak of war. At 16
he had won a scholarship to attend an art college but chose instead to serve in
World War 11 and joined the Royal Fleet Auxilliary as a midshipman. He was
profoundly affected by the death and destruction he witnessed.
Wilton was very proud of having taken part
in the first anti-nuclear march held by CND from London to Aldermaston* in 1958. The CND
symbol was launched at this march and Wilton held it dear and liked to ensure
that people knew about its meaning: the semaphore signs for N and D in the
circle of the world, white on black for hope over despair. *Aldermaston, in Berkshire, the headquarters for Britain’s
nuclear weapons programme and the target of a series of famous CND marches in
the 1950s and 60s, the Aldermaston marches. Ed.
Wilton came to New
Zealand in the 1960s after spending some time in Australia where
he had been involved in the Australian Aboriginal Advancement League. He came
to New Zealand as the Chief Executive Officer of Monier and I am told he was
responsible for introducing New Zealand to the concrete roof tile industry.
Later he was able to step into a lighter role as the International Projects
Manager for Monier and was able to work from home giving him time to do more
political work. Peace stalwart Lynn Hume applied for the job as his secretary.
She remembers the hectic days when they worked together and she would be firing
off a letter of protest to a politician one minute and a business letter the
next!
A Founder Of The Peace
Squadron
The Peace Squadron was the brainchild of George
Armstrong, a lecturer at St Johns
Theological College,
who recalls the first meeting of the Squadron in the lounge of theological
students. An “unbelievable” number of people turned up and everyone was
brimming with ideas – how would it ever be pulled together into a coherent
activity? George says he cannot remember a time when Wilton was not part of the
action – he worked hard and expected others to do the same. The Peace Squadron
suited him because it gave him the chance to do his own thing as the skipper of
his boat while at the same time working as part of the team.
There is a famous photo of Wilton
at the helm of his boat “Shiralee” in front of the US nuclear submarine “Pintado”. The
“Shiralee” (from an Aborigine word meaning “tether”) had other important peace
uses too – Wilton hosted many an international guest on the Waitemata Harbour.
In the 1980s Helen Clark accompanied a prominent Swedish peace advocate on one
such sail. The peace movement nationally had a huge growth spurt in 1983 –
spurred on by the warmongering of the Reagan era (Ronald Reagan was the
Republican President of the US from 1980-88. Ed.) and the visit of
internationally famous Australian peace activist and writer, Dr. Helen
Caldicott. Wilton was a key member of Auckland CND but he was also at the
forefront of the work to build better co-ordination among the disparate peace
groups such as the formation of the Auckland Peace Forum. Lynn Hume was the first
chair of that coalition. Some of the vital strategising took place in the
lounge of the Willis home in George Street.
Wilton wasn’t too keen on the informal “no
leaders” style of organisation and at the time I tended to agree that we needed
more structure and accountability. However, looking back there were some
stunning achievements in terms of mass mobilisations - Queen Street marches of
up to 20,000 at the time of US warship visits. However did we do it? I think a
key ingredient was the inspiration of the Peace Squadron and the undoubted
courage of skippers like Wilton.
Businessman or not, Wilton
formed close friendships with the lively Leftie political and artistic
community in Mount
Eden and was a deep
admirer and good friend of the late Pat Hanly (famous artist and peace
activist. Ed). Wilton could never accept the compromises that his erstwhile
Labour friends made when they took office - be it Rogernomics or the ongoing
entanglements with the Western military alliance. He was a passionate opponent
of New Zealand’s participation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He would
often ring me to expostulate about the latest “treachery” but would never give
up. Working with Helene, yet another letter would be sent off to the New Herald
and to the appropriate politician.
An Activist Until The
End
In the late 1980s Wilton
and Helene moved to Australia
for a time but in the early 1990s they returned to New Zealand and settled in Warkworth.
There Wilton was the inaugural President for the Warkworth Branch of Grey
Power. Helene took on the challenge of managing Presbyterian Support Services
in Warkworth. Helene and Wilton were active in the Alliance and subsequently
became active Green Party members.
For the last several years Wilton
and Helene have been living in Birkenhead on Auckland’s
North Shore, not too far from their now grown
children. Wilton never stopped being an enthusiastic Peace Squadron activist –
in 2002 he was out protesting at the entrance to the Viaduct with other
veterans including Barry Littlewood and George Armstrong about the
participation of the French boat “Areva” in the America’s Cup races. Areva the
corporation, largely owned by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), is the
outcome of a company merger involving both the plutonium reprocessing and
nuclear reactor industries.
Helene chose a venue in the Viaduct Harbour
for the celebration of Wilton’s life so we could
see his special Waitemata
Harbour as we toasted his
memory and watched the sunset. Wilton’s close friend Ray Bradley, a retired
Philosophy Professor, gave a moving testament, which opened my eyes to some of
Wilton’s interests that I would have liked to have explored with him further.
He described Wilton as a “multi-faceted” man – a “veritable diamond” who had so
many divergent interests and was devoted to so many causes: “The pursuit of
international and social justice was just one of them. His pursuit of knowledge
was another. He had an insatiable appetite for it; knowledge of the history of
ideas, and of how they influenced social and political movements; knowledge of
contemporary political institutions; knowledge that eventually made him the
scourge of many politicians – some of them his erstwhile friends”.
Ray spoke of Wilton’s membership of the Rationalist
Society and the NZ Astronomical Society. “His reading interests were
extraordinarily wide and at the time of his passing his copy of Engels* ‘The
Family, Private Property and the State’ was beside his bed as he reread parts
in preparation for a discussion with one of his dearest friends”. I will miss
this wonderful member of the peace, justice and human rights family and I
extend my condolences to his family. *Friedrich
Engels, 1820-95, partner with Karl Marx as the ‘fathers of Communism’. They
co-authored “The Communist Manifesto”, among other books. Ed.