{{short description|British Pacifist and founder of ''Peace News''}} '''Humphrey Sims Moore''' (17 April 1909 – 15 August 1995)<ref name="obit"/> was a British pacifist and journalist. He founded ''Peace News'', the British pacifist magazine, in 1936.
==Life and career== Born on 17 April 1909 in Samoa, Moore's father was a teacher and a Quaker.<ref name="obit">{{cite news|title=Humphrey Moore: A news-stand for peace|author=Harry Mister|work=The Guardian|date=12 September 1995|page= 16}}</ref> The family returned to the United Kingdom shortly before the outbreak of World War I and settled in Birmingham.<ref name="obit"/> Motivated by their Quaker faith, both of his parents publicly advocated for peace, and his mother was active with the Independent Labour Party.<ref name="obit"/> Like his parents, Moore became active in pacifist activism and joined the No More War Movement.<ref name="obit"/> In the late 1920s and early 1930s he worked as a journalist in Burton and Sunderland during which time he embraced various socialist causes.<ref name="obit"/>
In 1932 Moore took a post as a journalist in Ealing, and a year later he became editor of the National Peace Council's publications.<ref name="obit"/> His experience working with this publication brought him into contact with a broader array of peace activists, including church's of different backgrounds and political and social groups.<ref name="obit"/> This experience inspired his idea for a new kind of pacifist publication, and provided him with the knowledge of who his potential readers would be.<ref name="obit"/> Working with a peace group in Wood Green, London, Moore and his wife, Kathleen (playing the role of business manager),<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2402/pn240215.htm |title=Harry Mister, "Kathleen Moore 1907-1996", ''Peace News'', No 2402 |access-date=2010-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927181611/http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2402/pn240215.htm |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> launched ''Peace News'' with a free trial issue on 6 June 1936.<ref>''Peace News'', No 1, 6 June 1936, p 1</ref> With good distribution possible through Moore’s contacts through the National Peace Council, the new magazine rapidly attracted attention. Within six weeks, Dick Sheppard, founder of the Peace Pledge Union proposed to Moore that ''Peace News'' should become the PPU’s paper.<ref name="peacenews">{{Cite web |url=http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2395/pn239525.htm |title=Harry Mister, "Humphrey Moore 1909-1995", ''Peace News'', No 2395 |access-date=2010-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927181545/http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2395/pn239525.htm |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Early contributors to this new organ of the PPU included Gandhi, George Lansbury, and cartoonist Arthur Wragg.
Sales of ''Peace News'' peaked at around 40,000 during the so-called Phoney War following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and before major land battles in Europe. In May 1940, in the face of demands in parliament for the banning of the paper, the printer and distributors stopped working with ''Peace News''. However, together with the typographer Eric Gill, Hugh Brock and his brother Ashley, and many others, Moore continued to publish ''Peace News'' and arrange for distribution around the UK. At more or less the same time Moore faced a conscientious objector's tribunal at which he was exempted from war service.<ref name="peacenews" />
Humphrey Moore’s emphasis on ''Peace News'' having a single-minded anti-war policy was increasingly being challenged as the war went on. Others wanted greater emphasis on building a peaceful society once hostilities ended. In 1940 the PPU appointed John Middleton Murry to edit the paper, asking Moore to stay on as assistant editor.<ref name="obit"/> Moore eventually resigned in 1944 to join the ''News Chronicle''.<ref name="obit"/> Later, he worked on newspapers in Birmingham .<ref name="obit"/>
==References== <references/>
{{start box}} {{s-media}} {{succession box|title=Editor of ''Peace News''|years=1934 – 1940|before=''New position''|after=John Middleton Murry}} {{end box}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Humphrey}} Category:1909 births Category:1995 deaths Category:British anti-war activists Category:British conscientious objectors Category:British pacifists