Donald Rooum (20 April 1928 – 31 August 2019) was an English anarchist cartoonist and writer.^[1] He had an extremely long association with the Freedom newspaper in London, to which he regularly submitted his 'Wildcat' comic strips.

In 1963 he played a key role in exposing Harold Challenor, a corrupt police officer who had unsuccessfully tried to frame him for carrying an offensive weapon, see below.

Early life and education

Donald Rooum was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. He registered as a conscientious objector but was pressured by his family into doing two years military service, starting January 1947. A resettlement grant following his discharge allowed him to study commercial design at Bradford Regional Art School from 1949 to 1953.^[2] A 1952 portrait of him^[3] by Frank Lisle, one of his lecturers at the School, is displayed in The Hepworth, Wakefield.^[4]

From 1954 to 1966 Rooum worked as a layout artist and typographer in London advertising agencies. He then worked as a lecturer in typographic design at the London College of Printing until 1983. He studied life sciences at the Open University from 1973 to 1979, and was awarded a first class degree in 1980. He was elected Member of the Institute of Biology (incorporated into the Society of Biology in October 2009) and became a Chartered Biologist in 2004.

Rooum lived with Irene Brown from 1954 to 1983 and they had four children: Josephine Anne (born 1956), Penelope Jane (born 1958 died 1960), Mathew Donald (born 1960) and Rebecca Jane (born 1962).

Activism

Rooum said that he first became interested in anarchism in 1944 when he visited Speaker's Corner in London while on a Ministry of Food scheme which used schoolboys to pick hops in Kent. He subscribed to War Commentary, thus beginning a connection with Freedom Press which continued for over sixty years. During that time he was a writer for and an editor of Freedom, the name to which War Commentary reverted after the end of the Second World War.^[5]

In 1949, Rooum attended the annual Anarchist Summer School, which was held that year in Liverpool, and in which he 'made a memorable impact on the anarchist movement in general.'^[6] He then became an outdoor speaker, initially in Market Street, Bradford, and later at Speaker's Corner. He was a founding member of the Malatesta Club, an anarchist social club and venue that opened in London on May Day 1954. Rooum and Irene Brown worked as volunteers there.

In the long-running feud between Vernon Richards and Freedom on the one hand, and Albert Meltzer and Black Flag on the other, Rooum sided with Richards.

Political affiliation

Rooum (1987) disclosed: "The most influential source is Max Stirner. I am happy to be called a Stirnerite anarchist, provided 'Stirnerite' means one who agrees with Stirner's general drift, not one who agrees with Stirner's every word."^[7]

MacKay (2012) observed: "From meeting anarchists in Glasgow during the Second World War, long-time anarchist activist and artist Donald Rooum ... combined Stirner and anarcho-communism."^[8]

Role in the Challenor affair

In 1963 Rooum exposed police corruption during demonstrations against the Greek State Visit in July by King Paul of Greece and Queen Frederika. Attempts were made to outlaw the demonstrations and demonstrators were given draconian prison sentences. The government was criticized in the press for the severity of the sentences which was followed by embarrassing climb-downs. Some of the sentences were overturned on appeal and the Home Secretary, Henry Brooke, was required to offer financial compensation.

Rooum proved that an offensive weapon had been planted on him.^[9] On 11 July, he had joined a demonstration against the royal party at Claridge's hotel. He held up a banner reading, "Lambrakis RIP", referring to a Greek MP and peace activist who had been murdered. According to Rooum's account, the banner was confiscated by a police officer and read by four plain clothes men. Rooum asked, "Can I have my banner back?" He was approached by one of the officers: "This big one with the short-back-and-sides stepped forward. 'Can you have your what back?' "'My banner." "He smiled at me. 'You're fucking nicked, my old beauty,' he said, and gave me a terrific clout on the ear."^[10] At the police station, the officer, Detective Sergeant Harold Challenor, "took from his pocket a screwed-up newspaper, which he opened with a flourish. Inside was a piece of brick. His smile widened. 'There you are, my old beauty. Carrying an offensive weapon. You can get two years for that.'"^[10] Rooum was a member of the National Council of Civil Liberties and he had, by good fortune, read some material on forensic science and so gave his clothes to his defence solicitor Stanley Clinton Davis for analysis. No brick dust was found in his pocket and Rooum convinced the magistrate that therefore no brick could have been there at the time of the alleged offence.^[11][12] There followed a public inquiry that criticised the police and led to the imprisonment of three officers.^[9][13][14] Rooum received £500 compensation (£9,655 at 2017 value) and other convictions were overturned.^[12] Challenor was deemed mentally unfit to plead and was committed to Netherne mental hospital. A subsequent enquiry found that he had probably begun developing paranoid schizophrenia for some months before the incident, but the lack of any successful prosecution against him was seen by some as evidence of further establishment corruption.^[15]

Cartoonist

In 1952, Philip Sansom invited Rooum to draw a regular cartoon strip for The Syndicalist and he contributed Scissor Bill. The name derived from an IWW name for a bosses' yes-man. From 1960, his cartoons started appearing in such outlets as She, The Daily Mirror, Private Eye and The Spectator. Rooum has had a long relationship, with interruptions, with Peace News, his first work appearing for them in 1962. Originals of his cartoons for Peace News up to 1971, together with some for The Spectator, are stored at the British Cartoon Archive.

In 1974, Sansom invited Rooum to provide a cartoon for a monthly magazine he was working on, Wildcat. Rooum created a character of the same name. Wildcat ceased publication in 1975 but in 1980, when Sansom was again working on Freedom, he persuaded Rooum and the editorial collective to revive the Wildcat comic strip, which featured in every edition until Freedom ceased printing in 2014. In 2016, PM Press of California published Wildcat Anarchist Comics, a collection of his cartoons coloured by Jayne Clementson, with some autobiographical material, and What is Anarchism 2nd edition, an expanded version of the Freedom Press What is Anarchism 1992.

Rooum drew the Sprite strip for The Skeptic magazine from 1987. Also he illustrated several books, including Don't you believe it! by John Radford. An exhibition of his work was held at Conway Hall London in 2008. Another exhibition, 'Emotional need', which featured Wildcat, the short film by Adam Louis-Jacob about Rooum's black and white strip cartoons for Freedom, was held at Collective in Edinburgh in 2017.