Joan Mary Fry on the new stamp Photo: Photo courtesy the Royal Mail
Quaker relief worker on new stamp
Joan Mary Fry is one of ten 'Britons of Distinction' in new stamp collection
Joan Mary Fry is one of the ‘Britons of Distinction’ featured in a set of ten stamps released on 23 February. The British Philatelic Bulletin reads: ‘Born into a rich Quaker family in London, Joan Mary Fry grew up to become a Quaker relief worker and social reformer who exercised a lifelong commitment to pacifism and social justice…
On the outbreak of world war one, Fry became a prison chaplain. She supported and befriended many conscientious objectors and championed them at tribunals and court martials. Straight after the war she took the bold move of visiting the defeated Germany with other Quakers, despite initial opposition at home. They set up food-distribution networks, in recognition of which the University of Tuebingen awarded her an honorary doctorate.
In the 1920s Fry worked in the coalfields of South Wales, where she established food centres for the children of unemployed miners. She also advocated vegetarianism and took up the cause of The Friends Allotment Committee, which allowed people to grow their own food on unused land without losing unemployment benefit.’
