Gerald Herbert Holtom (20 January 1914 – 18 September 1985Westcott, Kathryn (20 March 2008
"World's best-known protest symbol turns 50"
'' BBC.co.uk (News)'' (Retrieved: 21 February 2010)) was a British artist and designer. In 1958, he designed the

Nuclear Disarmament Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nuclea ...

(ND) logo, which was adopted the same year by the British

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

(CND), and later became an international

peace symbol A number of peace symbols have been used many ways in various cultures and contexts. The dove and olive branch was used symbolically by early Christians and then eventually became a secular peace symbol, popularized by a ''Dove'' lithograph b ...

ND symbol

Educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Holtom was a graduate of the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

. He had been a conscientious objector during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 1958, he was working for the Ministry of Education.Christopher Driver, ''The Disarmers: A Study in Protest'', London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964 On 21 February 1958 he designed the nuclear disarmament logo for the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War (DAC) in Easter 1958 (4–7 April). There are differing accounts of how the design was conceived. According to CND, Holtom had been invited by the DAC to design artwork for the Aldermaston March. He showed his preliminary sketches to a DAC meeting in February 1958 at the

Peace News ''Peace News'' (''PN'') is a pacifist magazine first published on 6 June 1936 to serve the peace movement in the United Kingdom. From later in 1936 to April 1961 it was the official paper of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), and from 1990 to 2004 w ...

offices in North London. According to Christopher Driver, who wrote about CND in a 1964 book, ''The Disarmers'', Holtom brought the design, unsolicited, to the chairperson of his local anti-nuclear group in Twickenham and alternative versions were shown at the inaugural meeting of the London CND. Driver wrote, "The first mark on paper, according to Mr. Holtom, was a white circle within a black square, followed by various versions of the Christian cross within the circle". But the cross, for these people, had too many wrong associations – with the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

, with military medals, with the public blessing by an American chaplain of the airplane that flew to Hiroshima – and eventually the arms of the cross were depicted as declining, forming the composite semaphore signal for the letters N and D (the letters "N" (two arms outstretched pointing down at 45 degrees) and "D" (one arm upraised above the head) of the

flag semaphore Flag semaphore (from the Ancient Greek () 'sign' and - (-) '-bearer') is a semaphore system conveying information at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags, rods, disks, paddles, or occasionally bare or gloved hands. Informa ...

alphabet representing the words

nuclear disarmament Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nuclea ...

), and at the same time suggesting a gesture of human despair against the background of a globe. Eric Austen, who adapted the symbol for ceramic lapel badges, is said to have "discovered that the 'gesture of despair' motif had long been associated with 'the death of man', and the circle with 'the unborn child'". Holtom also rejected the image of the dove, as it had been appropriated by the Soviet peace propaganda. Trademark registration of the logo was never carried out, and since the 1960s the logo has become known to, and used by, the public as a general-purpose

. File:peace symbol (fixed width).svg, File:Semaphore November.svg, File:Semaphore Delta.svg, File:Semaphore Delta November.svg, In addition to this primary genesis, Holtom additionally cited as inspiration Goya's Peasant Before the Firing Squad:

I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it.

The reference is to

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

's ''

The Third of May 1808 ''The Third of May 1808'' (also known as or , or )The Museo del Prado entitles the work El 3 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid: los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío'' is a painting completed in 1814 by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, ...

'' (1814), although the peasant shown in this painting has his arms stretched upwards, not downwards.

Personal life

Holtom had six children, including four with his first wife: Peter, Julia, Anna (now Anna Scott, an artist) and Benjamin; and two with his second wife: Darius and Rebecca (also an artist).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Holtom, Gerald 1914 births 1985 deaths Alumni of the Royal College of Art British designers British conscientious objectors People educated at Gresham's School

ND symbol

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading

External links