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John Hewetson

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John Hewetson
Photo of Hewetson published in 1945
Born
John Christopher Hewetson

(1913-01-10)10 January 1913
Birmingham,England
Died20 December 1990(1990-12-20)(aged 77)
Surrey,England
Education
Occupations
  • Physician
  • Writer
  • Editor
MovementAnarchism
Partner
    • Peta Edsall
    • Phyllis

John Christopher Hewetson(10 January 1913 – 20 December 1990) was a Britishanarchistphysician, writer and newspaper editor.[1][2]During theSecond World Warhe was an editor of the anarchist newspaperWar Commentary,which saw him imprisoned on three occasions. From the 1940s onwards he was active in advocating for freely availablecontraceptionandabortions.

Biography[edit]

Hewetson was born inBirminghamto a wealthy family and was educated atShrewsbury Schoolbefore studying medicine atMagdalen College,theUniversity of Oxford.[2]In the run up to the Second War World he became active in theForward Movementof thePeace Pledge Unionwith his companion Peta Edsall.[3][4][5]In 1939 Hewetson and Edsall joined the anarchist movement and soon became involved inFreedom Press,editing the anarchist newspaperWar Commentary.[6]During the war he worked as a hospitalcasualty officer.[1][2]

In 1940 Hewetson was imprisoned for a week for selling a "working class paper" outside Hyde Park having refused to pay a £1 fine.[7][8]In 1942 he was imprisoned for two months for refusing to accept a commission in theRoyal Army Medical Corps.[6]

In 1945, alongside fellow War Commentary contributorsVernon RichardsandPhilip Sansom,Hewetson was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for conspiring to cause disaffection among members of the armed forces underDefence Regulation 39a.Coming at the end of the war, the four day trial at theOld Baileysaw significant press coverage and public controversy.[9][10][11][12]The arrests led to the formation of the prominentFreedom Defence Committee.Following lobbying by DrCharles Wortham Brookand MPRhys Davies(both unknown to Hewetson) he was released early, on the 12 September 1945, on the condition that he work full time in a hospital.[13]While in prison he wroteIll-Health, Poverty and the State,arguing that thewelfare statefails to address the underlying causes of poverty and poor health, namely capitalism and the state itself.[14][15]

In 1947 Hewetson went intogeneral practice.[16]In the 1950s Hewetson advocated for freely available birth control and safe abortions.[5]He worked to make contraceptives freely available for working-class women to enable them to have freer sex lives.[17]He also helped to supply birth control materials into France where they were illegal.[3][18]He regularly referred women to an illegal specialist for abortions.[1]Initially he did this work alone, but over time formed a group practice.[2]In 1951 he authoredSexual Freedom for the Young: Society and the Sexual Life of Children and Adolescentswhich drew on the work ofBronisław MalinowskiandWilhelm Reich.[19][17]

Alongside being a GP, Hewetson was a visiting medical officer of the Camberwell Reception Centre (also known as the Spike) from 1951 until his retirement in 1983.[3][2]Hewetson died on the 20 December 1990 in Surrey and was survived by his wife Phyllis, two daughters, two stepdaughters, and a stepson.[2][20]

Publications[edit]

  • Italy after Mussolini(1945)
  • Mutual Aid and Social Evolution(1946)
  • Ill-Health, Poverty and the State(1946)
  • Sexual Freedom for the Young: Society and the Sexual Life of Children and Adolescents(1951)

References[edit]

  1. ^abcRooum, Donald(2016).What Is Anarchism? An Introduction.Oakland, CA:PM Press.p. 134.ISBN978-1-62963-295-7.OCLC960977567– viaInternet Archive.
  2. ^abcdefJMcE (16 February 1991)."J C Hewetson".British Medical Journal.302(6773): 405–406.doi:10.1136/bmj.302.6773.404.ISSN0959-8138.S2CID220146135.Archivedfrom the original on 10 July 2022.Retrieved4 May2022.
  3. ^abcDavey Smith, George;Dorling, Daniel;Shaw, Mary, eds. (2001). "John Hewetson, 1913–90".Poverty, inequality and health in Britain: 1800-2000: A reader(1st ed.).Bristol University Press.p. 263.doi:10.2307/j.ctt1t8991k.30.JSTORj.ctt1t8991k.Archivedfrom the original on 4 May 2022.Retrieved4 May2022– viaJSTOR.
  4. ^Goodway, David(2012).Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward.Oakland, CA:PM Press.p. 207.ISBN978-1-60-486221-8.OCLC767502606– viaInternet Archive.
  5. ^abWard, Colin;Goodway, David(2014).Talking Anarchy.Oakland, CA:PM Press.ISBN978-1-60486-812-8.OCLC862611717– viaInternet Archive.
  6. ^ab"Glasgow calls all workers to defence of the four London Anarchists"(PDF).War Commentary.Vol. 6, no. 10. 10 March 1945. p. 1.Archived(PDF)from the original on 17 September 2021.Retrieved3 May2022.
  7. ^"British Political Police at Work"(PDF).War Commentary.Vol. 6, no. 14. 5 May 1945. p. 4.Archived(PDF)from the original on 17 September 2021.Retrieved3 May2022.
  8. ^London (25 September 1982)."Gaol".British Medical Journal.285(6345): 874–875.ISSN0267-0623.JSTOR29508050.Archivedfrom the original on 6 May 2022.Retrieved6 May2022– viaJSTOR.
  9. ^Honeywell, Carissa (22 July 2015)."Anarchism and the British Warfare State: The Prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945".International Review of Social History.60(2): 257–284.doi:10.1017/S0020859015000188.ISSN0020-8590.S2CID151669269.
  10. ^Sansom, Philip(6 June 1985)."1945 - The Victory Against Fascism and Freedom Goes To Jail".Freedom.p. 8.Retrieved2 May2022– viaInternet Archive.
  11. ^Senta, Antonio (2019)."Maria Luisa Berneri Richards".In Guarnieri, Patrizia (ed.).Intellectuals Displaced from Fascist Italy: Migrants, Exiles and Refugees Fleeing for Political and Racial Reasons.Biblioteca di storia. Vol. 34. Translated by Dawkes, Tom.Firenze University Press.doi:10.36253/978-88-6453-872-3.ISBN978-88-6453-872-3.OCLC1125084797.S2CID226874803.Archivedfrom the original on 3 May 2022.Retrieved4 May2022.
  12. ^Goodway 2012,p. 311.
  13. ^"Dr. John Hewetson"(PDF).The Word.Vol. IV, no. 3. Glasgow:United Socialist Movement.October 1942. p. 29.Archived(PDF)from the original on 4 May 2022.Retrieved3 May2022– viaMarxists.org.
  14. ^Parker, Tony; Ferrie, Jane E (26 March 2017)."Health and welfare: rejecting the state in the status quo - examples of an Anarchist approach".International Journal of Epidemiology.45(6): 1754–1758.doi:10.1093/ije/dyx001.ISSN0300-5771.PMID28538989.
  15. ^Hewetson, John (1946).Ill-Health, Poverty and the State(PDF).London:Freedom Press.Archived(PDF)from the original on 17 November 2021.Retrieved4 May2022.
  16. ^Hewetson, John (29 October 1983)."Before and after the" appointed day "".British Medical Journal.287(6401): 1271–1272.doi:10.1136/bmj.287.6401.1271.ISSN0007-1447.PMC1549691.PMID6416366.
  17. ^abWard, Colin(18 January 1991)."Gentle liberator".New Statesman & Society.Vol. 3, no. 134. p. 27.ProQuest224412514.Archivedfrom the original on 10 July 2022.Retrieved4 May2022– viaProquest.
  18. ^Ray, Rob (2018). "John Hewetson (1913–1990)".A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists; The Story of Britain's Oldest Anarchist Publisher(1st ed.). London:Freedom Press.pp. 244–247.ISBN978-1-904491-30-9.OCLC1052463857.
  19. ^Hewetson, John (1951).Sexual Freedom for the Young: Society and the Sexual Life of Children and Adolescents(PDF).London:Freedom Press.Archived(PDF)from the original on 4 May 2022.Retrieved4 May2022– viaLibcom.org.
  20. ^"Index entry".FreeBMD.ONS.Archivedfrom the original on 20 May 2022.Retrieved20 May2022.
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