Peace Pledge Union Collected Records

Peace Pledge Union; a non-denominational pacifist organization, founded in England in 1936; in October 1934, Canon H. R. L. ("Dick") Sheppard invited all men who were prepared to personally renounce war to send him a postcard stating "I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I support or sanction another." The response was immediate and far greater than anticipated. Within a few years, over 150,000 people (women were accepted after 1935) had signed the pledge, which became the basis of membership in the PPU. The desire of signatories to meet with others of like mind led to the formal organization of Peace Pledge Union (PPU) in 1936. In 1937, the No More War Movement decided to merge with PPU, thereby making Peace Pledge Union the British section of War Resisters' International. From 1936 through 1961, PPU helped to publish and distribute Peace News, a weekly pacifist newspaper which had been started independently in 1936 by Humphrey Moore. Peace News became independent of PPU in 1961. Housmans, a pacifist bookstore in London opened in 1945, initially under PPU sponsorship.