John Hewetson

John Christopher Hewetson (10 January 1913 – 20 December 1990) was a British anarchist physician, writer and newspaper editor. During the Second World War he was an editor of the anarchist newspaper War Commentary, which saw him imprisoned on three occasions. From the 1940s onwards he was active in advocating for freely available contraception and abortions.

Biography Hewetson was born in Birmingham to a wealthy family and was educated at Shrewsbury School before studying medicine at Magdalen College, the University of Oxford. In 1939 Hewetson and Edsall joined the anarchist movement and soon became involved in Freedom Press, editing the anarchist newspaper War Commentary. During the war he worked as a hospital casualty officer. In 1942 he was imprisoned for two months for refusing to accept a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The arrests led to the formation of the prominent Freedom Defence Committee. Following lobbying by Dr Charles Wortham Brook and MP Rhys Davies (both unknown to Hewetson) he was released early, on the 12 September 1945, on the condition that he work full time in a hospital. While in prison he wrote Ill-Health, Poverty and the State, arguing that the welfare state fails to address the underlying causes of poverty and poor health, namely capitalism and the state itself.

In 1947 Hewetson went into general practice. In the 1950s Hewetson advocated for freely available birth control and safe abortions. He also helped to supply birth control materials into France where they were illegal. He regularly referred women to an illegal specialist for abortions.

Publications Italy after Mussolini (1945) Mutual Aid and Social Evolution (1946) Ill-Health, Poverty and the State (1946) Sexual Freedom for the Young: Society and the Sexual Life of Children and Adolescents (1951)