Denis Cobell (born 1938) is a prominent UK secularist, humanist, republican, and pacifist. He was President of the National Secular Society from 1997 to 2006, and has been a longtime humanist celebrant. The below is a speech Denis gave in 2014, when he stepped down as Honorary Secretary of the South East London Humanist Group after 40 years in the role.
I first came to the Lewisham Humanist Group in 1973; but they had been going a little over a dozen years before I arrived. The Group had been reformed from a period of quiescence and we numbered 13 on that October evening in the Unitarian Meeting House, 41 Bromley Road, Catford. This was to be our venue for the next 33 years until 2006.
The Group was established in 1960 with a meeting at the old Town Hall. There was a short item headlined ‘The Secular Approach’ in the South London Press on 25 March 1960:
Non-religious counterparts to hospital chaplains are being planned by the newly formed South East London Humanist Group. The Group, formed under the auspices of the Ethical Union, holds monthly meetings at Lewisham Town Hall. Says Group founder member Barbara Smoker, ‘Humanism is the outcome of rejecting doctrinaire systems based on supernatural revelation, and demands no ultimate reality beyond human purposes and values. It teaches that man is responsible for making the world a better place to live in.’
A number of points can be made about this report. Firstly the group was originally known as the South East London Humanist Group – it acquired the name Lewisham Humanist Group in 1964, by which time it was meeting in The Saville in Lewisham High Street. Secondly, it was M. L. Burnet of the Ethical Union [now Humanists UK] who called the meeting. The Ethical Union became part of the British Humanist Association when the BHA was formed in 1963, through a merger then of the EU with the Rationalist Press Association, though the latter later withdrew and remained independent and is now know as the Rationalist Association. Thirdly, it was not until 1998 that I was invited to be a humanist hospital chaplain – albeit at Greenwich – and, unlike religious counterparts, in an honorary capacity! Finally, Barbara Smoker was instrumental in keeping the group alive in its formative years. She was Chair also from 1973 until 2003 when she became President.
It was not until 1998 that I was invited to be a humanist hospital chaplain… and, unlike religious counterparts, in an honorary capacity!
Between 1960-64 the Group held meetings on a variety of subjects, including hospital visits. Other titles were about humanist parents, humanist literature, the international humanist movement, rationalism, unilateralism, human nature, the evolution of man, civil liberties, Shaw’s religion. Speakers included Richard Clements, Jack Coates, Eric Bateson, and F. H. Amphlett-Micklewright. It is interesting to note that there was a humanist group in Orpington which predates the South East London group. There was also a South West London group, a name revived in the 21st century. Of course there were meetings of the non-religious before 1960; these were held under the auspices of the National Secular Society [and the Ethical Movement].
It ought not to be forgotten that Bertrand Russell’s famous essay ‘Why I am not a Christian’ was first given as a talk to the local NSS branch at the Battersea Town Hall in 1929.
There are details of these activities outlined in various publications; Edward Royle’s Radicals, Secularists & Republicans: popular freethought in Britain 1866-1915 (Manchester University Press 1980) gives details of more than a dozen freethought societies which were active in south London during the period covered in his book. Terry Liddle (former chair of Lewisham Humanists) also writes of activities of ‘The Deptford Infidels’ in the 1870s in No. 1 Vol 1 of The Journal of Freethought History. It ought not to be forgotten that Bertrand Russell‘s famous essay ‘Why I am not a Christian’ was first given as a talk to the local NSS branch at the Battersea Town Hall in 1929. Later in the late 1940s and early 1950s The Freethinker records meetings of the South London Branch of the National Secular Society. There were monthly indoor meetings at two pubs – The Hope, Loampit Vale, Lewisham, and The London & Brighton Hotel, Queens Road, Peckham. Outdoor meetings in the summer were held weekly in Brockwell Park. Regular speakers included F. A. Ridley, then President of the NSS, who was also a speaker at Lewisham Humanist Group meetings in 1975 and 1978.
Coming back from these ante-diluvian times – at least in terms associated with the heretics in the borough of Lewisham and district, it is appropriate to note the use of the word ‘humanism’ in its modern sense. As a system of morality without religion it gained currency in the aftermath of the Second World War, and in the 1950s and early ’60s, humanist groups sprang up in many localities as well as universities.
Once the South East London Group had been launched, as described above, it ran for a few years, but was re-formed as the Lewisham Humanist Group around 1964. Barbara Smoker was a prominent member, others included Don Langdown, Keith Mack, and Hilda Bowler. All of these held positions as either Chair, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer, or Press Officer over the years. Hilda Bowler and Keith Mack are dead, but Barbara and Don are alive – Barbara our President and Don treasurer of the later formed group in Bromley. [Don Langdown and Barbara Smoker died in 2020.]
There are few records of topics and speakers from the period up until 1973. It seems there were various activities and a lot of letters to the papers. At one time a ’Sunday club’ was under discussion with Susie and John Powlesland who ran Kirkdale School in Sydenham. Kirkdale School itself was run on ‘self regulation’ lines with considerable influence from A. S. Neill of Summerhill. There were book sales at the Davenport Hall, a Co-op hall, and talk of adverts on Catford Bridge station. Noted support was given to David Steel at the time of the introduction of the Abortion Bill around 1967. There is a list of meetings at 41 Bromley Road in 1971, then a break until 1973 – where my own memories start.
Lewisham Humanist Group
Apart from all the wonderful talks and discussions held every month at 41 Bromley Road from 1973 – 2006, the Lewisham Humanist Group has engaged in a number of other activities.
We joined in the anti-fascist march and demonstration in Lewisham in 1977. That same year we were involved in the campaign against Northbrook Church of England School’s refusal to accept Sandra King because her mother did not attend church.
We joined in the anti-fascist march and demonstration in Lewisham in 1977. That same year we were involved in the campaign against Northbrook Church of England School’s refusal to accept Sandra King because her mother did not attend church. This drew quite a lot of media coverage and writing to parliamentarians. The same school, with full government funding, was in trouble again in 2009 when a cross was put on the rebuilt school. Church schools are happy to be funded by the public but get annoyed when anyone calls them to account to discriminatory measures.
Probably our most successful campaign was for the removal of the huge brass cross hanging above the catafalque at Lewisham Crematorium. Non-Christians who objected to its looming presence over the coffin at their family funerals had to pay a three-figure surcharge for it to be lifted down. The campaign against this featured in the press around the world. Eventually Lewisham Council agreed to its replacement with a small movable cross in 1989.
We hired a stand at the annual Lewisham Peoples’ Day most years between 1986 and 2002. Although there was interest, and we sold second-hand books and bric a brac, few new members came to our meetings and the cost of hiring the stall finally outweighed any benefit. But from 2008 we have had a similar stall in Nunhead Cemetery on Open Days.
On a wet and windy miserable Saturday in December 1994 we attempted to sell copies of Our Pagan Christmas [by R. J. Condon] with heretic Christmas cards and meetings details: the response was nil! In opposing St George’s Church search for funds from non-churchgoers we were virtually evicted from their grounds in 1997.
In 1998 I was invited to be ’humanist chaplain’ to the Lewisham Mayor… A year later some children from the Woodcraft Folk read humanist passages at the Holocaust Memorial Day.
Exhibitions were held for a total of six weeks in Catford and Manor House Libraries in 1993. Also there have been additional public meetings at Lewisham Library in 1994 and at Blackheath Library in 1996. There was a display at the main Lewisham High Street Library in April/May 2010.
In 1998 I was invited to be ’humanist chaplain’ to the Lewisham Mayor. This gained a lot of publicity and caused controversy. Michael Foot attended a meeting at the Civic Centre during this time and was pleased to hear Thomas Paine quoted. I was also invited to be humanist chaplain at Greenwich (not Lewisham) Hospital at this time. A year later some children from the Woodcraft Folk read humanist passages at the Holocaust Memorial Day.
Our protest in 2003 against the conversion of the borough’s last cinema – Catford ABC – into a church for the United Church of the Kingdom of God, was sadly and finally lost.
Among speakers who have visited the following names may be mentioned: H. J. Blackham, first Director of the British Humanist Association (now Humanists UK); F.A. Ridley, former President of the National Secular Society; Dr Colin Buchanan, a Bishop of Woolwich; Mary Stott, editor of Guardian‘s women’s page; Martin Rowson, Guardian cartoonist; Terry Liddle, founder of the Freethought History Research Group and one-time Chair of Lewisham Humanist Group, along with our own Barbara Smoker, author of Humanism. Many members have given several talks.