John Hewetson
{{Short description|British anarchist (1913–1990)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = John Hewetson
| image = John Hewetson (1913–1990).png
| caption = Photo of Hewetson published in 1945
| birth_name = John Christopher Hewetson
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|01|10|df=y}}
| birth_place = Birmingham, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|12|20|1913|01|10|df=y}}
| death_place = Surrey, England
| education = {{Plainlist|
}}
| occupation = {{Flatlist|
- Physician
- Writer
- Editor
}}
| movement = Anarchism
| spouse = {{Marriage|Phyllis E. Hawling|1975}}
| partner = Dorothy 'Peta' Edsall
}}
John Christopher Hewetson (10 January 1913 – 20 December 1990) was a British anarchist physician, writer and newspaper editor.{{Cite book |last=Rooum |first=Donald |url=https://archive.org/details/whatisanarchismi0000roou/page/134/ |title=What Is Anarchism? An Introduction |publisher=PM Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-62963-295-7 |location=Oakland, CA |page=134 |language=En |oclc=960977567 |author-link=Donald Rooum |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite journal |last=JMcE |date=1991-02-16 |title=J C Hewetson |url=https://www.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmj.302.6773.404 |url-status=live |journal=British Medical Journal |language=en |volume=302 |issue=6773 |pages=405–406 |doi=10.1136/bmj.302.6773.404 |issn=0959-8138 |s2cid=220146135 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710174113/https://www.bmj.com/content/302/6773/404 |archive-date=2022-07-10 |access-date=2022-05-04}} During the Second World War he was an editor of the anarchist newspaper War Commentary, which saw him imprisoned on three occasions. From the 1940s onwards he was active in advocating for freely available contraception and abortions.
Biography
Hewetson was born in Birmingham to a wealthy family and was educated at Shrewsbury School before studying medicine at Magdalen College, the University of Oxford. In the run up to the Second War World he became active in the Forward Movement of the Peace Pledge Union with his companion Peta Edsall.{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1t8991k |title=Poverty, inequality and health in Britain: 1800–2000: A reader |date=2001 |publisher=Bristol University Press |editor-last=Davey Smith |editor-first=George |editor-link=George Davey Smith |edition=1st |page=263 |language=En |chapter=John Hewetson, 1913–90 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1t8991k.30 |jstor=j.ctt1t8991k |access-date=2022-05-04 |editor-last2=Dorling |editor-first2=Daniel |editor-link2=Danny Dorling |editor-last3=Shaw |editor-first3=Mary |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504010155/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1t8991k |archive-date=2022-05-04 |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=Goodway |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/anarchistseedsbe0000good |title=Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward |publisher=PM Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-60-486221-8 |location=Oakland, CA |page=207 |language=En |oclc=767502606 |author-link=David Goodway |access-date= |url-access=registration |archive-url= |archive-date= |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Colin |url=http://archive.org/details/talkinganarchy0000ward |title=Talking Anarchy |last2=Goodway |first2=David |publisher=PM Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-60486-812-8 |location=Oakland, CA |language=En |oclc=862611717 |author-link=Colin Ward |author-link2=David Goodway |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}} In 1939 Hewetson and Edsall joined the anarchist movement and soon became involved in Freedom Press, editing the anarchist newspaper War Commentary.{{Cite news |date=1945-03-10 |title=Glasgow calls all workers to defence of the four London Anarchists |volume=6 |page=1 |work=War Commentary |issue=10 |url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/War-Commentary-1945-03-10.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=2022-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917165931/https://freedomnews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/War-Commentary-1945-03-10.pdf |archive-date=2021-09-17}} During the war he worked as a hospital casualty officer.
In 1940 Hewetson was imprisoned for a week for selling a "working class paper" outside Hyde Park having refused to pay a £1 fine.{{Cite news |date=1945-05-05 |title=British Political Police at Work |volume=6 |page=4 |work=War Commentary |issue=14 |url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/War-Commentary-1945-05-05.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=2022-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917165913/https://freedomnews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/War-Commentary-1945-05-05.pdf |archive-date=2021-09-17}}{{Cite journal |last=London |date=1982-09-25 |title=Gaol |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29508050 |url-status=live |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=285 |issue=6345 |pages=874–875 |issn=0267-0623 |jstor=29508050 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220506011735/https://www.jstor.org/stable/29508050 |archive-date=2022-05-06 |access-date=2022-05-06 }} In 1942 he was imprisoned for two months for refusing to accept a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
In 1945, alongside fellow War Commentary contributors Vernon Richards and Philip Sansom, Hewetson was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for conspiring to cause disaffection among members of the armed forces under Defence Regulation 39a. Coming at the end of the war, the four day trial at the Old Bailey saw significant press coverage and public controversy.{{Cite journal |last=Honeywell |first=Carissa |date=2015-07-22 |title=Anarchism and the British Warfare State: The Prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945 |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=257–284 |doi=10.1017/S0020859015000188 |issn=0020-8590 |s2cid=151669269 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite news |last=Sansom |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Sansom |date=1985-06-06 |title=1945 – The Victory Against Fascism and Freedom Goes To Jail |page=8 |work=Freedom |url=https://archive.org/details/freedom_1985.06_46.06_202010/page/n3 |url-access=registration |access-date=2022-05-02 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |last=Senta |first=Antonio |url=https://intellettualinfuga.fupress.com/en |title=Intellectuals Displaced from Fascist Italy: Migrants, Exiles and Refugees Fleeing for Political and Racial Reasons |publisher=Firenze University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-88-6453-872-3 |editor-last=Guarnieri |editor-first=Patrizia |series=Biblioteca di storia |volume=34 |location= |translator-last=Dawkes |translator-first=Tom |chapter=Maria Luisa Berneri Richards |doi=10.36253/978-88-6453-872-3 |oclc=1125084797 |access-date=2022-05-04 |chapter-url=https://intellettualinfuga.fupress.com/en//scheda/maria-luisaberneri-richards/2748 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503022933/https://intellettualinfuga.fupress.com/en |archive-date=2022-05-03 |url-status=live |s2cid=226874803}}{{Sfn|Goodway|2012|p=311}} The arrests led to the formation of the prominent Freedom Defence Committee. Following lobbying by Dr Charles Wortham Brook and MP Rhys 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.{{Cite news |date=October 1942 |title=Dr. John Hewetson |volume=IV |page=29 |work=The Word |publisher=United Socialist Movement |issue=3 |location=Glasgow |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/aldred-guy/the-word/v4-n3-october-1942.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=2022-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504010156/https://www.marxists.org/archive/aldred-guy/the-word/v4-n3-october-1942.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-04 |via=Marxists.org}} While in prison he wrote Ill-Health, Poverty and the State, arguing that the welfare state fails to address the underlying causes of poverty and poor health, namely capitalism and the state itself.{{Cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Tony |last2=Ferrie |first2=Jane E |date=2017-03-26 |title=Health and welfare: rejecting the state in the status quo – examples of an Anarchist approach |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |language=en |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=1754–1758 |doi=10.1093/ije/dyx001 |issn=0300-5771 |pmid=28538989 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite book |last=Hewetson |first=John |url=http://www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk/collections/public_archive/10795.pdf |title=Ill-Health, Poverty and the State |publisher=Freedom Press |year=1946 |location=London |language=En |access-date=2022-05-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117085345/http://www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk/collections/public_archive/10795.pdf |archive-date=2021-11-17 |url-status=live}}
In 1947 Hewetson went into general practice.{{Cite journal |last=Hewetson |first=John |date=1983-10-29 |title=Before and after the 'appointed day'. |journal=British Medical Journal |language=en |volume=287 |issue=6401 |pages=1271–1272 |doi=10.1136/bmj.287.6401.1271 |issn=0007-1447 |pmc=1549691 |pmid=6416366 |doi-access=free}} In the 1950s Hewetson advocated for freely available birth control and safe abortions. He worked to make contraceptives freely available for working-class women to enable them to have freer sex lives.{{Cite magazine |last=Ward |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Ward |date=1991-01-18 |title=Gentle liberator |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/224412514 |url-status=live |magazine=New Statesman & Society |volume=3 |issue=134 |page=27 |id={{ProQuest|224412514}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710174113/https://www.proquest.com/docview/224412514 |archive-date=2022-07-10 |access-date=2022-05-04 |url-access=subscription}} He also helped to supply birth control materials into France where they were illegal.{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Rob |url= |title=A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists; The Story of Britain's Oldest Anarchist Publisher |publisher=Freedom Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-904491-30-9 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=244–247 |language=en |chapter=John Hewetson (1913–1990) |oclc=1052463857 |access-date= }} He regularly referred women to an illegal specialist for abortions. Initially he did this work alone, but over time formed a group practice. In 1951 he authored Sexual Freedom for the Young: Society and the Sexual Life of Children and Adolescents which drew on the work of Bronisław Malinowski and Wilhelm Reich.{{Cite book |last=Hewetson |first=John |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/Raven4.pdf |title=Sexual Freedom for the Young: Society and the Sexual Life of Children and Adolescents |publisher=Freedom Press |year=1951 |location=London |language=en |access-date=2022-05-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504032521/https://files.libcom.org/files/Raven4.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-04 |url-status=live |via=Libcom.org}}
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. Hewetson died on the 20 December 1990 in Surrey.{{Cite news |last=Sansom |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Sansom |date=1991-01-12 |title=John Hewetson obituary |url=https://thesparrowsnest.org.uk/collections/public_archive/16269.pdf |work=Freedom |location=London |page=5 |issn=1364-9132}}
Publications
- 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
{{Reflist}}{{Freedom Press}}{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hewetson, John}}
Category:British anti–World War II activists
Category:Health professionals from Birmingham, West Midlands
Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Category:Medical doctors from the West Midlands (county)
Category:British general practitioners
Category:English newspaper editors
Category:People educated at Shrewsbury School
Category:English anti-war activists
Category:English prisoners and detainees