Barbara Smoker
| Barbara Smoker | |
|---|---|
In Bloomsbury in 2017 at age 93.
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| Born |
2 June 1923 London |
| Nationality | British |
| Institutions | |
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Main interests
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humanism |
Barbara Smoker (born 2 June 1923) is a British Humanist activist and freethought advocate. She is also a former President of the National Secular Society (1972–1996), former Chair of the British Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now known as Dignity in Dying) (1981–1985) and was an Honorary Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in the United Kingdom.
Barbara Smoker was born in London in 1923 into a Roman Catholic family. She served in the Women's Royal Naval Service from 1942 to 1945 in southeast Asia. In 1949 she became an atheist, inspired by the writing of Hector Hawton, Managing Director of the Rationalist Press Association and editor of The Humanist.
In 1950 Smoker joined the secular humanist movement when she became a member of the South Place Ethical Society, where she was critical of seeking redress on religious grounds. Eventually she became President of the National Secular Society for nearly 25 years (1972 –1996). In that capacity, she represented the atheist viewpoint in print, on lecture platforms, speaking tours, on radio and television. She was in demand to give addresses at secular funerals and eventually officiated at non-religious funerals, wedding ceremonies, gay and lesbian commitments and baby namings. She was active in various social campaigns, such as the abolition of the death penalty, nuclear disarmament, legalization of abortion and for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. She claimed to have financed the manufacture of the first Make Love, Not War badges that were popular in Britain during the 1960s.
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