PEACE CHILD
Born in Cyprus to Hugh Llewellyn Jones, a Welshman, and Helen Hayes.
Eirwen’s father was the manager of the Ottoman Bank in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Eirwen is Welsh for ‘Snowdrop’. Many friends who couldn’t pronounce her name called her ‘Snowdrop’, although as a child she also went by the nickname ‘Earwig’.
She spent her early years in Cyprus but was then sent to Warwick High School for her education.
Eirwen returned to Cyprus when her schooling was complete, but was evacuated to South Africa during the Second World War.
She lived in Cape Town and was recruited by the British Government Intelligence Records Bureau. Her job was a ‘recorder’ – keeping track of people who were suspected of consorting with the enemy.
In 1943, Eirwen went back to Cyprus and joined ‘A Force’- part of MI 19, a branch of military intelligence largely charged with obtaining information from prisoners of war. She was involved in developing camouflage and other escape aids for British POWs.
Following this, she was transferred to the MI 19 office in Cairo where her boss was Lieutenant Colonel Tony Simonds. They were married within a year.
They lived in Jerusalem and then Saudi Arabia before going back to Cyprus after the war. They had two daughters, Sally-Anne and Rosey.
There, the couple started a flower farm in the Kyrenia mountains.
Eirwen also contributed to the setting up of the CBS (Cyprus Broadcasting Service), which initially was for radio but eventually incorporated television. She became a TV newsreader.
Her marriage was not happy as Tony wanted her to give up her job and become a housewife.
In 1969, Eirwen met Brigadier Michael Harbottle – leading to divorce from Tony.
Harbottle was Chief of Staff for the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus. They married in 1972. It was a very happy union. “We were like two peas in a pod – it was a great joy to be with him.”
They moved to St John’s Wood in North London. Michael was by now actively involved in the peace movement.
Two family friends, Philip Noel-Baker (who had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959) and Fenner Brockway (who was nominated in 1962), set up the World Disarmament Campaign in 1980. They asked the Harbottles to run it for them.
Michael became General Secretary with Eirwen being the administrative secretary.
During her two-year stint, she came up with the idea of creating a musical about peace, designed for children. Eirwen had seen composer David Gordon’s ‘Alpha Omega’, performed in Coventry Cathedral – and Michael had just read writer Bernard Benson’s ‘The Peace Book’. They thought it would be excellent to set the book to music and turn it into a musical. At the time, their daughter Rosey worked in casting in the London theatre.
Rosey contacted David Gordon and Bernard Benson and a meeting was arranged at Eirwen’s London home. The three of them wrote a musical entitled ‘Peace Child’ in the basement. Gordon insisted it should be non-profit making. Any money made would go to the promotion of peace. Rosey remained very much involved in the production.
It premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1981, the very last night of Disarmament Week. Susannah York was the narrator. The musical was a massive success. Then it was performed at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva.
Then the musical toured throughout the UK, the USA and even Russia (when the Soviet Union collapsed). It touched thousands of lives.
It is about two children, a Russian girl and an American boy, who meet at a party and discuss the world situation.
It includes the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and follows the Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev as he tries to repair the damage, gets sacked and then ruminates on the pointlessness of the Cold War – and how to build a better future.
But it also has children appealing to the American President – they sing a song entitled ‘Please Mr. President’.
“Mr President, is it true what they say,
You can kill all of the world in less than a day?
We’ve all got to die, without asking why.”
The song called for a World Peace Day.
It led to the creation of Peace Child International which is still going strong after 40 years, creating opportunities for young people around the world.
Eirwen was delighted when the President of Costa Rica declared his country would observe a ‘World Peace Day’ – the first country in the world to do so.
In 1982, Eirwen founded the Centre for International Peacebuilding, (along with Michael), which was instrumental in helping the United Nations promote, and keep, peace throughout the world. She was co-director and threw herself into the project – she never really retired.
The two primary objectives were developing the role of young people in promoting world peace and in explaining how the military could contribute to ending war and violence.
Eirwen also worked with the ‘International Peace Academy’ and the ‘Centre for Human Rights and Responsibilities’. She campaigned tirelessly for the Kurds and the Vietnamese ‘Boat People’.
Michael wrote the ‘Peacekeepers Handbook’ (amongst other books) and lectured in universities around the world. He created, and ran, ‘Generals for Peace and Disarmament’ made up of ex-military leaders who had converted to the cause of peace.
Michael died in 1997. Eirwen immediately took over the co-ordination of his organisation, now renamed ‘Retired Flag’.
In 2006, former Soviet Union President Gorbachev, now long retired, requested a special performance of ‘Peace Child’ to be held in Moscow to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl.
Eirwen continued with her work as long as she could. She was still attending meetings and lectures well into her nineties.
Eirwen gave the opening address at the creation of the European Union’s ‘Youth Training Programme’.
During an interview just before she died, she sang ‘Please Mr. President’. It can be viewed on YouTube.
Her daughter Rosey, along with her husband David Woollcombe, now run Peace Child International.
Eirwen died just a few days short of her 101st birthday.
Peace Child International said, “Her passion, strength and vision for the future continues to inspire us all daily.”
RIP – Restoring International Peace
