Donald Rooum

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Donald Rooum
Born(1928-04-20)20 April 1928
Bradford, England
Died31 August 2019(2019-08-31) (aged 91)
London, England
Education
Occupations
  • Cartoonist
  • Writer
Notable workWildcat (cartoon strip)
MovementAnarchism
PartnerIrene Brown
Children4

Donald Rooum (20 April 1928 – 31 August 2019) was an English anarchist cartoonist and writer.[1] He had an extremely long association with the Freedom newspaper in London, to which he regularly submitted his 'Wildcat' comic strips.

In 1963 he played a key role in exposing Harold Challenor, a corrupt police officer who had unsuccessfully tried to frame him for carrying an offensive weapon, see below.

Early life and education

Donald Rooum was born in

Bradford Regional Art School from 1949 to 1953.[2] A 1952 portrait of him[3] by Frank Lisle, one of his lecturers at the School, is displayed in The Hepworth, Wakefield.[4]

From 1954 to 1966 Rooum worked as a layout artist and typographer in London advertising agencies. He then worked as a lecturer in typographic design at the

Society of Biology
in October 2009) and became a Chartered Biologist in 2004.

Rooum lived with Irene Brown from 1954 to 1983 and they had four children: Josephine Anne (born 1956), Penelope Jane (born 1958 died 1960), Mathew Donald (born 1960) and Rebecca Jane (born 1962).

Activism

Rooum said that he first became interested in anarchism in 1944 when he visited

Ministry of Food scheme which used schoolboys to pick hops in Kent. He subscribed to War Commentary, thus beginning a connection with Freedom Press which continued for over sixty years. During that time he was a writer for and an editor of Freedom, the name to which War Commentary reverted after the end of the Second World War.[5]

In 1949, Rooum attended the annual Anarchist Summer School, which was held that year in Liverpool, and in which he 'made a memorable impact on the anarchist movement in general.'[6] He then became an outdoor speaker, initially in Market Street, Bradford, and later at Speaker's Corner. He was a founding member of the Malatesta Club, an anarchist social club and venue that opened in London on May Day 1954. Rooum and Irene Brown worked as volunteers there.

In the long-running feud between

Black Flag
on the other, Rooum sided with Richards.

Political affiliation

Rooum (1987) disclosed: "The most influential source is Max Stirner. I am happy to be called a Stirnerite anarchist, provided 'Stirnerite' means one who agrees with Stirner's general drift, not one who agrees with Stirner's every word."[7]

MacKay (2012) observed: "From meeting anarchists in Glasgow during the Second World War, long-time anarchist activist and artist Donald Rooum ... combined Stirner and anarcho-communism."[8]

Role in the Challenor affair

In 1963 Rooum exposed

Queen Frederika. Attempts were made to outlaw the demonstrations and demonstrators were given draconian prison sentences. The government was criticized in the press for the severity of the sentences which was followed by embarrassing climb-downs. Some of the sentences were overturned on appeal and the Home Secretary, Henry Brooke
, was required to offer financial compensation.

Rooum proved that an offensive weapon had been planted on him.

paranoid schizophrenia for some months before the incident, but the lack of any successful prosecution against him was seen by some as evidence of further establishment corruption.[15]

Cartoonist

In 1952,

The Daily Mirror, Private Eye and The Spectator. Rooum has had a long relationship, with interruptions, with Peace News, his first work appearing for them in 1962. Originals of his cartoons for Peace News up to 1971, together with some for The Spectator, are stored at the British Cartoon Archive
.

In 1974, Sansom invited Rooum to provide a cartoon for a monthly magazine he was working on, Wildcat. Rooum created a character of the same name. Wildcat ceased publication in 1975 but in 1980, when Sansom was again working on Freedom, he persuaded Rooum and the editorial collective to revive the Wildcat comic strip, which featured in every edition until Freedom ceased printing in 2014. In 2016, PM Press of California published Wildcat Anarchist Comics, a collection of his cartoons coloured by Jayne Clementson, with some autobiographical material, and What is Anarchism 2nd edition, an expanded version of the Freedom Press What is Anarchism 1992.

Rooum drew the Sprite strip for

Conway Hall London in 2008. Another exhibition, 'Emotional need', which featured Wildcat, the short film by Adam Louis-Jacob about Rooum's black and white strip cartoons for Freedom, was held at Collective
in Edinburgh in 2017.

Bibliography

As author and cartoonist

As author

As illustrator

As editor

Notes

  1. ^ "Donald Rooum, UK atheist, anarchist and artist dead at 91". 4 September 2019. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  2. ^ Page 3 in Philip Sansom's Introduction to the original 1985 edition of Wildcat Anarchist Comics, see 'References' below.
  3. ^ ArtUK - Donald Rooum
  4. ^ The Hepworth, Wakefield
  5. ^ Rooum, Donald "Freedom, Freedom Press and Freedom Bookshop Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine" in Information for Social Change Number 27, Summer 2008, pp.29–36 ISSN 1364-694X
  6. ^ Page 3 in Sansom's Introduction to Wildcat Anarchist Comics, see 'References' below
  7. ^ Donald Rooum: Anarchism and Selfishness. In: The Raven. Anarchist Quarterly (London), vol. 1, n. 3 (nov. 1987), pp. 251–259 (here 259)
  8. ISBN 9781849351225
    .
  9. ^ a b Driver, Christopher, The Disarmers: A Study in Protest, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964
  10. ^
    Anarchy
    , No.36, Vol.4. No.2, February 1964
  11. ^ Link to article on Challenor, mentioning Rooum's role in exposing him Archived 4 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ a b James Morton (1993) Bent Coppers pp.118–9
  13. Parliamentary question by Shirley Summerskill to Home Office ministers [1] Archived 18 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Report of Enquiry, by Mr A.E.James, QC, 1965 HMSO, Cmnd 2735
  15. Attorney General re Challenor by Arthur Lewis[2]

References

External links
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