(Adapted from ‘The Quaker peace testimony’, this timeline illustrates some of the Quaker work for peace that has gone on over the last 350 years.)

1661 ------

The declaration to King Charles II, signed by George Fox and eleven others, said Quakers “utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons”. The declaration was made against the backdrop of violent times in London. In 1661 many died in street battles and four thousand Quakers were in . The king outlawed meetings of Quakers, and others. The declaration was a political and strategic document, aimed to convince others that Quakers posed no threat because they rejected the use of violence.

1693 ------

William Penn, founder of writes his influential “An essay towards the present and future peace of Europe”, proposing the establishment of a European Parliament as the best means to avoid future war. Penn was imprisoned four times for stating his Quaker beliefs. Penn advocated religious toleration and envisioned a colony based on religious and political freedom.

1807 ------

The Slave Trade Act makes the Transatlatic slave trade illegal in Britain: Quakers had campaigned for the ban for many years since they first considered it in 1727 (23.24 Quaker faith & practice).

1813 ------

Elizabeth Fry’s first visit to Newgate Prison. The conditions she saw horrified her. The women's section was overcrowded with women and children, some of whom had not even received a trial. She stayed the nights in some of the and invited nobility to come and stay and see for themselves the conditions prisoners lived in. Her kindness helped her gain the friendship of the prisoners and they began to try to improve their conditions for themselves. Her concern for the welfare of prisoners causes a revolution in thinking about prison conditions.

1830s to 1860s ------

The Underground Railroad is developed in secret in America to help slaves escape from the southern states. Rev. Samuel R. Ward, a one-time resident of Poughkeepsie, describes in his autobiography the escape of his parents from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to southern New Jersey in 1820. They left with the intention "to reach a Free State, and live among Quakers." They found refuge in Greenwich, New Jersey. There were no slave-holders there, despite New Jersey being at that time a slave state, and, quoting Ward, "when the slave-catchers came prowling about the Quakers placed all manner of peaceful obstacles in their way.”

1846 to 1847 ------

Quakers are remembered for what they did to help in the relief of the Irish Famine after the potato crop failed in 1846 for the second year running. When Quakers realised the seriousness of the famine, straight away they formed a committee to give help. Money, food and clothing were sought from Quakers in England and America. This was the first international relief effort.

1852 ------Quaker John Bright, MP for Manchester, delivers a speech to the House of Commons in opposition to the Crimean War, described as a ‘poetic anti-war masterpiece’. The Crimean War is seen as the first “modern” war in the age of mass communications – the first to be photographed, the first to use the telegraph, the first “newspaper war”. Britons were depicted as standing up against the Russian Bear to defend liberty– a fight of “Right Against Wrong’. As in our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reason given by the British government for its involvement in the Crimea (the defence of Turkish sovereignty against Russian aggression) was a long way from its real and deeper aims: to reduce the power of Russia as a rival to British imperial interests; and to secure a firmer hold on the government of the Ottoman Empire. Because of this gap there was an important role for journalists and pamphleteers, poets, artists and photographers, orators and priests.

1870 ------

The War Victims Relief Committee (FWVRC) undertook relief work among the civilian population of towns and villages devastated in the Franco-Prussian War. This was the first time the Quaker star - the badge of the Quaker relief worker - was used, and the policy of no discrimination between the "sides" in war was formally adopted. War Victims Relief Committees were revived in 1876 for Eastern Europe and in 1912 for the Balkans. An official committee was also active in South Africa after 1900, particularly among Boers in internment camps. After the outbreak of war in 1914 the War Victims Relief Committee was revived to undertake overseas work of relief and later post-war reconstruction.

1914 ------

The Friends Ambulance Unit is founded, in which many serve as an alternative to military service in WWI. It was refounded at the start of World War II and more than 1,300 members were trained and went on to serve as ambulance drivers and medical orderlies in London during the Blitz, as well as in many countries overseas.

1916 to 1918 ------

Conscription starts in Britain and, as well as a opposing this, many Friends are conscientious objectors to military service and are imprisoned or sent to do “work of national importance” such as farming or mining.

1947 ------

The Friends Service Council and American Friends Service Committee accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers around the world.

1950 onwards ------

Quaker opposition to nuclear weapons begins to build. Friends take part in marches to Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment throughout the 1950s and 60s.

1972 ------The Quaker-sponsored School of Peace Studies is opened at the University of Bradford.

1979 ------

Friends take part in marches at Greenham Common against cruise missiles and support Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.

1982

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Twenty-five members of Quaker staff ask their employer, Meeting for Sufferings, to withhold that proportion of their tax that would fund war preparations, until assured that it would be used for non-military purposes. Meeting for Sufferings accepts the request and challenges the law in court, unsuccessfully.

1982 ------

Quaker House Belfast– established as a discrete place for people to talk and listen during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland.

1992

------

The international campaign to ban landmines coalition formed. A prominent supporter was Diana, Princess of Wales. The organization and its founding coordinator, Jody Williams, jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty). Informal discussions which helped to launch this campaign began at Quaker United Nations Office Geneva and New York.

2009 ------

Rachel and Sally celebrate a civil partnership at Bourneville Meeting House.

Photo: Hannah Eno.

At Yearly Meeting (the ultimate decision making body of Quakers in Britain) in York, Quakers sought a change in the law so that same sex marriages can be prepared, celebrated, witnessed, reported to the state, and recognised as legally valid, without further process, in the same way as opposite sex marriages are celebrated in Quaker meetings. April 2011 ------

Quakers in Britain decide to boycott products from the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The settlements are illegal under international law. Quakers regard this boycott as a nonviolent move for peace for Israelis and Palestinians.

August 2011 ------

1,500 Quakers came together in Canterbury for Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG) and made a corporate commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community.