My friend Leslie Pope, who has died aged 101, was an ordinary man with an extraordinary mission: he spent years supporting women at the Greenham Common peace camp near Newbury in Berkshire during the 1980s and 90s, when they were protesting against the presence of American cruise missiles there.
Leslie lived in Newbury with his wife, Wendy (nee Stringer). When the women’s peace camp was set up in 1981, they opened their home to the women and their families, and regularly attended Newbury magistrates court to offer legal advice to those charged with trespass and obstruction. Although Leslie had no law training, he possessed a great understanding of legal matters, allied to the courage to challenge authority.
It was Leslie who helped the Greenham women’s case that resulted in a House of Lords judgment that Greenham was still common land. He then opposed further development on the base by assembling evidence that all building work there since the second world war had been illegal. Wendy and Leslie then organised Commons Again, a campaign that supported commoners who refused to give up their rights in return for Ministry of Defence compensation, and the continued existence of these rights eventually resulted in Greenham Common being restored to the public.
Leslie was born in Wembley, north-west London, to Sidney Pope, a science journalist, and his wife, Lily (nee Goodenough). After Wembley county school he sat the civil service exam, coming second in the country. He started work at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in London, and stayed there throughout his working life, rising to be a senior executive officer by the time of his retirement.
In 1945 he married Wendy, a teacher, and they eventually moved to Newbury in the 70s. Committed vegetarians, they had both registered as conscientious objectors during the second world war and continued their peace campaigning afterwards. As CND supporters they went on the Aldermaston marches and were members of Newbury Campaign Against Cruise Missiles. It was their involvement in that organisation that led to their later links with the Greenham women.
When Wendy died in 2017, Leslie moved to live in a care home in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear.
He is survived by their four children, Anne, Margaret, Jonathan and Simon, 10 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
