A popular explanation of the PEACE symbol is that Gerald Herbert Holtom (1914-1985) created this symbol on February 21, 1958. At that time Holtom worked with the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War. Holtom was a dedicated peacemaker & graduate of the Royal College of Arts. During World War II he worked on a farm in England as a conscientious objector. The BBC quoted Holtom, "I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards & downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad." ~ For details & history of the PEACE symbol he designed, see http://www.teachpeace.com/peacesymbolhistory.htm

Quote of Tim Holtom (nephew of Gerald Holtom in a letter to author Ken Kolsbun, June 2006) ~
"He was a man ahead of his time; one moment, a manic radical genius, the next a magnanimous, charming & genial host & entertainer, & then sometimes, when bogged down by pessimists, his dark brooding side would intervene & ensuing intermittent explosions of roaring rhetoric could be heard reverberating throughout the house like a crescendonous Beethovenesque clamor. …Despite all the disappointments in his life, however, Gerald never let things crush his spirit… he was always full of resolve & injected considerable passion into the numerous & diverse projects he devised, even when many people around him were skeptical as to their feasibility."

A popular explanation of the PEACE symbol is that Gerald Herbert Holtom (1914-1985) created this symbol on February 21, 1958. At that time Holtom worked with the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War. Holtom was a dedicated peacemaker & graduate of the Royal College of Arts. During World War II he worked on a farm in England as a conscientious objector. The BBC quoted Holtom, "I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards & downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad." ~ For details & history of the PEACE symbol he designed, see http://www.teachpeace.com/peacesymbolhistory.htm

Quote of Tim Holtom (nephew of Gerald Holtom in a letter to author Ken Kolsbun, June 2006) ~
"He was a man ahead of his time; one moment, a manic radical genius, the next a magnanimous, charming & genial host & entertainer, & then sometimes, when bogged down by pessimists, his dark brooding side would intervene & ensuing intermittent explosions of roaring rhetoric could be heard reverberating throughout the house like a crescendonous Beethovenesque clamor. …Despite all the disappointments in his life, however, Gerald never let things crush his spirit… he was always full of resolve & injected considerable passion into the numerous & diverse projects he devised, even when many people around him were skeptical as to their feasibility."