Sid Rawle
Sid Rawle | |
---|---|
Born | Sidney William Rawle 1 October 1945 Bridgwater, Somerset, England |
Died | 31 August 2010 Rodley, Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, England | (aged 64)
Occupation(s) | Campaigner, organiser |
Sidney William Rawle
Early life
He was born in
London years
After spending some time in
During the early 1960s, Rawle became increasingly involved in the London
Dorinish commune
In 1970, John Lennon invited Rawle to establish a commune on
Tipi Valley commune
In 1976, he became one of the original residents of Tipi Valley, a tent commune near
Later life
He wrote The Vision of Albion, an unpublished but widely publicised manifesto, in which he stated:
"In the end it all gets back to land. Looking back, I see that a link that runs through my life concerns the right to land and property on it. Shared out equally, there would be a couple of acres for every adult living in Britain. That would mean each family or group could have a reasonably sized small holding of ten or twenty acres and learn once again to become self sufficient. The present day reality is the reverse, with some folk owning hundreds of thousands of acres and others owning none. There’s talk of community in war time. We can be ordered to go and fight and die for Queen and country. In peace time is it too much to ask for just a few square yards of our green and pleasant land to rear our children on? That’s all we want, myself and the squatters and travellers and other people in the many projects I’ve been involved with. Just a few square yards of this land that we can in wartime be asked to go out and die for. And if we ever achieve that, what else? What else is what I call the Vision of Albion."
He eventually settled with his family at Hillersland near Berry Hill in the Forest of Dean, where he remained till his death at the age of 64.[5] Here he ran the highly successful Forest Fayre for several years. After his involvement with Oak Dragon and Rainbow Circle camps, small festivals with a more participatory and spiritual inclination, he set up his own organisation, Rainbow 2000 (Now Rainbow Futures), which held a number of camps each summer, first at a site at Elton (near Westbury-on-Severn[29]), and in recent years on top of a hill overlooking the River Severn near Rodley. He was sitting in a chair by the outside fire, while the last Rainbow 2000 Camp of the season (the SuperSpirit Camp) was being packed down by the crew, when he collapsed and died on 31 August, 2010 from a heart attack.[1] He had at least seven children, by different mothers.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g May, John (16 September 2010). "Sid Rawle obituary: 'King of the Hippies', he fought for love, peace and land". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
- ^ "Last Word – 17/09/2010". BBC Radio 4. BBC. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
- ^ Sellers, Luke (September 2010). "Tributes paid to Sid, 'King of the Hippies' – Glastonbury Festival legend". thisisgloucestershire.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ Rawle, Sid (September 2010). "King of the Hippies – Notes for an Alternative History of Britain 1960 – 2000". Jeremy Sandford. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ a b c Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 9 September 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2010.
- ^ May, John (15 September 2010). "Sid Rawle obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
- ^ McKittrick, David (1 November 2010). "Sid Rawle: Social activist known as King of the Hippies". The Independent. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
- ^ Rawle, Sid (September 2010). "King of the Hippies – Chapter 2". Jeremy Sandford. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ Rawle, Sid (September 2010). "King of the Hippies – Chapter 3". Jeremy Sandford. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ Aragon, David (September 2010). "Ghetto Raga". Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ Worthington, Andy (8 September 2010). "RIP Sid Rawle, Land Reformer, Free Festival Pioneer, Stonehenge Stalwart". Andy Worthington. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-09-190513-2.
- ^ "International Times Vol 1 Issue 28". International Times. 5 April 1968. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ Rawle, Sid (September 2010). "Vision of Albion". Jeremy Sandford. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ Gillatt, John. "John Gillatt, it's my life". Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "Sid Rawle: death of a free festival veteran". September 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-571-25842-0.
- ^ "International Times Vol 3 Issue 1". International Times. June 1975. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ "International Times Vol 3 Issue 2". International Times. July 1975. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ "Pop festival 'organiser' sent to jail". ukrockfestivals.com. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "beatle-island"/ "John Lennon's Irish "Beatle Island"". Private Islands magazine. October 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- ^ Rawle, Sid (September 2010). "King of the Hippies – Chapter 1". Jeremy Sandford. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ "IMDB page for Winstanley". imdb.com. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ "IMDB page for Sid Rawle". imdb.com. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
- ^ Rawle, Sid (September 2010). "King of the Hippies – Chapter 8". Jeremy Sandford. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- ^ Morgan, Katleen; Smith, Brian S. "A History of the County of Gloucester". www.british-history.ac.uk. Victoria County History. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
External links
- Interview with Sid Rawle
- Sid Rawle on The Hyde Park Diggers – IT 1968
- Hippies plan to buy Skerries Island – RTE Archives – Dublin 1969 – Sid Rawle and Frank Harris talk about possible Kibbutz/Commune in Ireland
- Obituaries – The Telegraph, 9 Sep – The Guardian, 15 Sep – BBC R4, 17 Sep – The Times, 27 Sep – The Independent, 1 Nov
- Sid Rawle at IMDb