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15 Richard Cobden |
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Richard
Cobden (1804-1865) Inside Waterstones Bookshop, formerly
the Wool Exchange, there is a statue of Richard
Cobden who was MP for the West Riding of Yorkshire
from 1847-1857. |
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promoted peace and goodwill among nations with his Quaker friend John
Bright, from Rochdale. |
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they wanted an end to the Corn Laws that were causing
hardship to the poor. |
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1839, they joined together in the Anti-Corn Law League
and toured the country giving speeches on the reform of the Corn Laws.
Later they campaigned together against the Crimea War
(1854 - 1856). For this they were much abused in the press and some
even accused them of treason. Both lost their Parliamentary seats
as a result. |
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also wanted free trade between nations as a means to promote peace
and prosperity. Cobden
worked with the Peace Society of the time - a national
organisation in the mid-nineteenth century. His ideas owe much to
the earlier (1693) writings of the Quaker William
Penn (after whose father, William Penn, Pennsylvania,
USA, was named) who had proposed a system of international arbitration
to settle disputes between nations. As such this was a forerunner
of the United Nations, so all three men were very much
ahead of their time. |
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The Peace Museum |
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Peace Museum is the only one in the UK. It is located in
a city centre side street opposite Waterstones Bookshop, at 10
Piece Hall Yard. |
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has limited opening hours (Wednesday & Friday 11 - 3), and has
a collection of posters & banners. |
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concentrates on conflict resolution and has five different travelling
exhibitions, including one on Bradford. These are available for borrowing
anywhere in the world. Copies can be viewed in the museum. |
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museum is an independent charitable trust. Although not directly linked
with the Peace Studies Department of the University
(see site 21)
it has good informal links. It is well known internationally in the
peace museum field and has contacts with the other 100 or so peace
museums across the world. |
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17
Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
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The
Dietrich Bonhoeffer plaque was unveiled in 2006. It is
on the outside of the German Evangelical Church (built c.1877) |
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in Great Horton Road opposite Bradford College. Bonhoeffer
was a German pastor and theologian who campaigned against fascism
in Germany. He was executed in 1945 for involvement in a plot to assassinate
Hitler. |
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plaque on the church wall commemorates the German Pastor's visit to
Bradford in 1933, to a conference of the German Evangelical
Clergy of Great Britain, when the Bradford Declaration
was made. The declaration was about the political situation that was
developing in Germany. It was a theological statement on the subordination
of the Christian Gospel and the principles of the Reformation to the
political expedience of the Reich Church government - a protest against
Nazification of the Christian Church |
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plaque celebrates his life as a 'Martyr in the anti-racist cause',
though he himself would have been uncomfortable with this name of
martyr. Rather, he saw himself as enduring the inevitable suffering
that comes to those who stand up for what they believe is right. |
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the black lettering on the plaque is wearing away. |
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