Gilbert, Rosa

Gilbert, Rosa

Rosa Gilbert

8 February 2013Comment

Leslie Gordon Harris, Christian pacifist and Second World War conscientious objector, died at West Middlesex Hospital in December, aged 96.

Born at 155 Hither Green Lane, Lewisham, in 1916, he was brought up in the Congregational Church, and in 1935 responded to the reverend Dick Sheppard’s invitation to declare that ‘I renounce war and will never support or sanction another’, joining the Peace Pledge Union. 

Having left Colfe’s Grammar School in 1932, Leslie started working at Barclay’s bank in 1935 after a brief spell working for stockbrokers in the City. He married Barbara Freeman – a shorthand typist at Barclay’s…