13 Facts About Nicolas Walter

Nicolas Hardy Walter was a British anarchist and atheist writer, speaker and activist.

Nicolas Walter was a member of the Committee of 100 and Spies for Peace, and wrote on topics of anarchism and humanism.

Nicolas Walter served two years National Service in the Royal Air Force, where he learned Russian prior to working in Signals Intelligence, and then read modern history at Exeter College, Oxford.

Nicolas Walter was heavily involved in the peace movement, being a founder member of the Committee of 100.

Nicolas Walter married Ruth Oppenheim, another member of the Committee of 100 in 1962, who was the daughter of refugees from Nazi Germany.

Nicolas Walter was a member of Spies for Peace, which only became known after he died, along with Ruth, who was happy to be publicly identified by Natasha Nicolas Walter in 2013.

In 1966, Nicolas Walter was imprisoned for two months under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1860, after a protest against British support for the Vietnam War.

Nicolas Walter had a long association with Freedom Press and was a regular contributor to Freedom among other publications.

Nicolas Walter was appointed Managing Editor of the Rationalist Press Association in 1975, but his progressive disability and the fact he was not, as Bill Cooke puts it, "a born administrator" led to difficulties.

Nicolas Walter was a prominent member of the South Place Ethical Society and became one of its Appointed Lecturers in 1978.

Nicolas Walter resigned from this position in 1979 following a special meeting of the Society to consider a paper by Albert Lovecy and vote on the motion "that the Society has no theistic creed and does not practise worship".

Nicolas Walter was editor of the Rationalist Press Association's magazine New Humanist from February 1975 until July 1984, when Jim Herrick took over.

In 1989, in the aftermath of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie and his book The Satanic Verses, Nicolas Walter re-formed The Committee Against Blasphemy Law.