Bob Mellors
{{Short description|British gay rights activist}}
{{for|the football manager|Bob Mellor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bob Mellors
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1949|10|28|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date|1996|3|24|df=y}}
| death_place = Warsaw, Poland
| occupation = Writer, Gay rights activist
| spouse =
}}
Bob Mellors (28 October 1949 – 24 March 1996) was a British gay rights activist.
Biography
In 1970 Mellors went to New York and became involved with the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/glf-london.html Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto]. London, 1971, revised 1978{{Cite web|date=2017-02-06|title=Sociology and the Gay Liberation Front – Bob Mellors at LSE|url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2017/02/06/gay-liberation-front-bob-mellors/|access-date=2021-05-25|website=LSE History}} becoming friends with Aubrey WalterSubsequently a founder of Gay Men's Press during demos outside the Women's House of Correction in New York. Meeting up with the Black Panthers helped to crystallize their ideas on gay liberation and they decided to create a London version of the GLF.(Power, 1995) page 4
As Mellors was working in the London School of Economics (LSE) he booked the room for the first meeting of the London GLF in the Clare Market building owned by the LSE, on 13 October 1970. Also taking part in that meeting were David Fernbach] (author and Aubrey's partner), Richard Dipple (involved in the Albany Trust), Bill Halstead (LSE student) and Bev Jackson (later running for college office with the slogan "Bev the Lez for Prez"),{{Cite book|last=Feather|first=Stuart|title=Blowing the Lid: Gay Liberation, Sexual Revolution and Radical Queens|year=2016|isbn=9781785351440}} Tom Gowling (language student at Central School London) & Fernley Thompson (architecture student at NE London Poly)(Power, 1995) page 20
{{Quotation|A tiny spark can cause a prairie fire.(Power, 1995) Refer to p.290, Bob was quoting Chairman Mao Zedong.|Bob Mellors|unveiling a plaque at the London School of Economics for the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Gay Liberation Front}}
During the 1970s Mellors came to know Charlotte Bach, a writer and teacher. Charlotte left Bob her library and Bob wrote her biography but never had it published.In 2002 Francis Wheen published Charlotte Bach's biography "Who Was Dr.Charlotte Bach?", {{ISBN|1-904095-39-9}}.Refer to [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=HCA%2fMELLORS], Bob's papers are retained in the Hall-Carpenter archives
When the British GLF faltered in 1974 Bob Mellors helped in the formation of more specialized lesbian and gay community groups.
Mellors never made any money from his writing and in London survived by art school modelling and working in the box office of the Electric and other cinemas.
In 1991 Mellors moved to Warsaw "for the company of Polish youth".{{Cite web|title=25 lat temu zamordowano Boba Mellorsa, symbol brytyjskiego ruchu LGBT|url=https://oko.press/25-lat-temu-zamordowano-w-warszawie-boba-mellorsa-symbol-brytyjskiego-ruchu-lgbt/?fbclid=IwAR1eEj70v0diPU0vgHIw3qUxGouUQL7N1_Mjccuxb05JB7VclDjx8BNpEU4|access-date=2021-05-25|website=oko.press}} He taught English to Polish telecommunications staff. He was preparing an article on young Polish sexual identity for the gay journal PerversionsPerversions: The international journal of gay and lesbian studies. ISSN 1353-257X just before his death.
Mellors was found stabbed to death at his home in Warsaw on 24 March 1996. This was the result of a burglary at his flat. He is buried in Nottinghamshire.{{cite journal
|first=Andrew
|last=Lumsden
|title=GLF founder dies in exile
|journal=Gay Times
|issue=212
|publisher=Millivres
|date=May 1996
|issn= 0950-6101}} page 50.{{cite journal
|title=GLF founding member killed
|journal=The Pink Paper
|issue=426
|publisher=Millivres
|date=19 April 1996
{{cite news|work=The Guardian|date=1996-04-13|author=Elizabeth Wilson|title=Glad to be Gay and Radical; Obituary: Robert Mellors|page=32}}
See also
{{Portal|LGBTQ}}
Footnotes
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite web
|last=Mellors
|first=Bob
|title=Clint Eastwood loves Jeff Bridges, true! : "homosexuality", androgyny & evolution : a simple introduction
|publisher=Quantum Jump Publications: Another-Orbit Press
|year=1978
|format=pamphlet
|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3264&inst_id=1
|oclc=16477157
|access-date=1 January 2007
|archive-date=15 May 2003
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030515202445/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3264&inst_id=1
|url-status=dead
}}
- {{Cite web
|last=Mellors
|first=Bob
|title=We Are All Androgynous Yellow
|publisher=Another-Orbit Press
|year=1980
|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3264&inst_id=1
|oclc=16605861
|access-date=1 January 2007
|archive-date=15 May 2003
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030515202445/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3264&inst_id=1
|url-status=dead
}}
- {{Cite web
|last1=Bach
|first1=Charlotte M.
|first2=Bob
|last2=Mellors
|authorlink=Karoly Hajdu
|title=An outline of human ethology
|publisher=Another-Orbit Press
|year=c. 1985
|format=4 volumes
|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3264&inst_id=1
|oclc=33346846
|access-date=1 January 2007
|archive-date=15 May 2003
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030515202445/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3264&inst_id=1
|url-status=dead
}}
References
- {{cite book
|last=Power
|first=Lisa
|title=No Bath But Plenty Of Bubbles: An Oral History Of The Gay Liberation Front 1970-7
|publisher=Cassell
|year=1995
|isbn=0-304-33205-4
|page=340 pages }}
- {{cite book
|last=Walter
|first=Aubrey
|title=Come together : the years of gay liberation (1970-73)
|url=https://archive.org/details/cometogetheryear00walt/page/218
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Gay Men's Press
|year=1980
|isbn=0-907040-04-7
|page=[https://archive.org/details/cometogetheryear00walt/page/218 218 pages]
}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070704141319/http://www.knittingcircle.org.uk/bobmellors.html Knittingcircle biography page]
- [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=HCA%2fMELLORS Catalogue of the Mellors papers held at LSE Archives]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mellors, Bob}}
Category:Gay Liberation Front members
Category:British LGBTQ rights activists
Category:English LGBTQ writers