A DISPLAY at Rosyth Library is hoping to prompt memories about a Women’s Peace Camp that existed from May to September 1983 in Rosyth.
Dunfermline woman Lesley Ratomska is hopeful the display, which will be on at the entrance to the library for the whole of November, will reveal the whereabouts of a 36 foot peace banner made by local women and taken down to Greenham Common to form part of a larger “dragon" banner.
“The banner was taken down to Greenham Common and formed part of a peace dragon that surrounded the perimeter fence,” she explained. “I also understand the banner was then taken to a military base in Germany.”
Further research of the Dunfermline Press archive at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries showed the newspaper carried regular articles and letters about the camp.
“These women’s voices and the banner need to be heard and seen again. What I’m now wondering is where is this banner that Maureen and her friends made? This is an important part of the social history of not just Rosyth but Scotland. It was an incredibly brave act of conscious raising by these women.”
Lesley explained how she stumbled across this forgotten part of Rosyth’s social history.
“I was visiting the exhibition ‘Women in Revolt: art and activism in the UK 1970-90’ at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh earlier this year when a newsletter in a display case stopped me in my tracks,” she said.
"It was an A5 pamphlet called ‘Edinburgh Women’s Newsletter’ and on the front page it referred to amongst other things, Rosyth Women’s Peace Camp. I’d never heard of the peace camp so I decided to do some research and see what I could find out about it.”
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Using a simple internet search Lesley quickly came up with a list of newspaper articles and archives to follow up. Her first stop was the reference library at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries where she found several references to the peace camp and was able to quickly establish it was set up in May 1983 at Limpetness, near Rosyth Naval Base and disbanded at the end of September that year.
She said: "It was organised and run by eight women and operated out of a caravan with very basic facilities.
"Women came from all over the UK to visit the camp and support the events they staged; a demonstration and die-in during Roysth Naval Base’s open weekend and a fast and vigil coinciding with Nagasaki Day from August 6 to 9.”
Lesley is keen to hear from anyone still living in the area who visited the peace camp or helped make the banner.
If you’d like to help her with her research, drop in to Rosyth Library and leave your details at the reception desk.
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