Bertram Pickard and Irene Pickard Collected Papers

Bertram Pickard (1892-1973) was Secretary of the Friends Peace Committee of the London Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends from 1921-1926. This interest in peace motivated Pickard and his wife, Irene, to go to Geneva, Switzerland as representatives of the Friends' Service Council in 1926. There he served as Secretary of the Friends Geneva Center until 1940, and Chair of the International Consultative Group on Peace and Disarmament from 1935-1940; the Pickards also acted as hosts of the Quaker Student Hostel, which Irene had been chiefly responsible for founding. Bertram Pickard was much interested in the work of the League of Nations, and he was active in promoting its work. In that regard, he wrote careful interpretations of its actions and meetings, some of which were published in Quaker Press Service and World Outlook Press Service (which he helped establish). The Pickards became quite active in the Geneva Quaker Meeting, orienting its focus on the League of Nations rather than on simply being a home-away-from-home for elderly displaced persons.

Bertram Pickard was a Fellow at Woodbrooke, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England from 1940-1941. The Pickards moved to the United States in 1941, where he lectured that year at Pendle Hill, near Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; later he edited Washington Commentary, a news sheet circulated among American Quaker peace leaders from 1942-1944. Pickard was also an associate of the American Friends Service Committee from 1941-1942.

Following the war, the family moved to England and eventually back to Geneva. There Pickard was a liaison officer with the Economic and Social Council (?) of the United Nations. In addition, Pickard became the Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Quaker Center, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the International School, where he was instrumental in establishing the International Schools Association, which set up a chain of international schools throughout the world. The Pickards left Geneva in 1954 (1955?) after Bertram's retirement from the United Nations. Further information about their lives is unknown.