{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
'''Ann Pettitt''' (born 1947) is an English activist. With other women she started the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp by marching from Cardiff to RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire in 1981. She published the 2006 book ''Walking to Greenham''.
==Life==
Pettitt was born in 1947 in Ulverston in the Lake District, England.<ref name="Real" /><ref name="Interview">{{cite web |last1=Arikoglu |first1=Nicky |title=Interview: Karmen Thomas and Ann Pettitt |url=https://greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Karmen-Thomas-and-Ann-Pettitt.pdf |website=Greenham Women Everywhere |access-date=20 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219171007/https://greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Karmen-Thomas-and-Ann-Pettitt.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> She studied English at the University of Bristol, then squatted in the East End of London from 1969 until 1977, working as a teacher and a legal clerk. She moved to a smallholding in Llanpumsaint, Wales and participated in the anti-nuclear movement.<ref name="Real">{{cite book |editor1-last=Wates |editor1-first=Nick |editor2-last=Wolmar |editor2-first=Christian |title=Squatting the real story |date=1980 |publisher=Bay Leaf Books |page=240 |location=London |isbn=0-9507259-1-9}}</ref><ref name="WO" /><ref name="Interview" /> [[File:MDP Greenhamcommon1982.jpg|A 1982 protest at the gates of RAF Greenham Common|alt=Women sitting on ground to block gates which have a line of police in them|thumb|right]] After reading a newspaper article about the USA putting nuclear cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England, Pettitt was outraged and decided to organise a march to the base from Cardiff. She joined with three other women and marched 120 miles under the name Women for Life on Earth in 1981. The protest was the beginning of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, which lasted until 2000, having seen the last cruise missile leave in 1991. Since she had her life and family in Wales, Pettitt did not live at the camp and last visited it in 1984.<ref name="WO" /> In 1982, she organised a peace visit to the USSR with a group of women, meeting the official Soviet Peace Committee and independent groups.<ref name="Arikoglu">{{cite web |last1=Arikoglu |first1=Nicky |title=Ann Pettitt and Karmen Thomas |url=https://greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.uk/ann-pettit-and-karmen-thomas/ |website=Greenham Women Everywhere |access-date=19 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219174011/https://greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.uk/ann-pettit-and-karmen-thomas/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="WO">{{cite news |last1=Wightwick |first1=Abbie |title=I'd do it all again says Greenham Common organiser Ann Pettitt |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/id-again-says-greenham-common-1836108 |access-date=20 February 2023 |work=Wales Online |date=26 May 2011 |language=en |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122221041/https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/id-again-says-greenham-common-1836108 |url-status=live }}</ref> She published a book entitled ''Walking to Greenham'' in 2006. The previous year, she set up a charity called Safer Birth In Chad to train midwives in birthing practices.<ref name="WO" />
==Selected works== * {{cite book |last1=Pettitt |first1=Ann |title=Walking to Greenham |date=2006 |publisher=Honno |location=Dinas Powys, Wales |isbn=9781870206761}}
==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== *[https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-60336574 BBC Film interviewing Pettitt] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettitt, Ann}} Category:1947 births Category:People from Ulverston Category:English anti–nuclear weapons activists Category:20th-century English writers Category:21st-century English writers Category:Smallholders Category:Alumni of the University of Bristol Category:20th-century squatters Category:Living people