In 2012, Cowra’s World Peace Bell was re-dedicated as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the inauguration of the bell in 1992.
Cowra Shire Councillor, Ian Brown, was a driving force behind the success of the re-dedication event and is a long-term member of Cowra’s World Peace Bell Committee.
Ian’s dedication to the message of the bell, which is a replica of the World Peace Bell in the forecourt of the United Nation’s headquarters in New York, is a result of a personal and family history of a commitment to peace.
Ian’s family arrived in Australia as a result of the persecution that conscientious objectors suffered in Britain during World War One.
“The commitment to peace is historical and in my genes. That’s why the family migrated to Australia,” Ian explains.
But the family commitment to social causes goes back even further, to the libertarian and labour movements of late 19th century England. This included membership of playwright George Bernard Shaw’s Fabian Society, which promoted social democracy by peaceful means.
“Politics was in the British blood; my uncles were founders of the British Labour Party and also members of the Fabian Society.”
“Early family members were booksellers and publishers to the King of England from the family store in Chiswell St, Camden,” said Ian.
The family was also involved with the campaign of female radicals, such as Emily Pankhurst, and the Suffragette Movement, taking part in marches calling for women’s suffrage.
“My mother, Elsie Chiswell, was in the Suffragette Movement with Emily Pankhurst prior to World War One — everything was different,” commented Ian.
A non-conformist tradition ran strongly through the Chiswell family, who were all pacifists. When the huge casualties of the Western Front forced the introduction of conscription, the family was arrested and given a ticket on the next ship to anywhere in the world, banished from ever returning to England.
“The boys were pacifists and when conscription was introduced, they were arrested — their brothers and cousins were also told they could either leave England or go to jail,” said Ian.
The family met on the docks in New York and stayed for a while with other pacifist families. They then caught a windjammer — a large merchant sailing ship — to Australia, with all the Chiswell brothers arriving by 1921. They then set about establishing the Chiswell Bros furniture and cabinet-making business in Rockdale.
Councillor Ian Brown has carried on his family’s commitment to peace as both a member and current Chairman of the Cowra World Peace Bell Committee. He personally invited the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, to the Peace Bell 20th Anniversary Re-dedication.
“I’m strong about peace rather than war. The thought of young men and women going to war is abhorrent; there has to be a better way,” said Ian. “The peace movement can lead us to becoming a more peaceful and secure nation.”
