Rita Milton

Rita Milton (31 May 1924 – 17 December 2011) was a Scottish-born anarchist who worked as an editor and was associated with the Freedom Press. She was regarded as a gifted orator, once being described by The New York Times as a "fiery female Demosthenes."

Biography Early years Milton was born in the Kelvinside area of Glasgow on 31 May 1924. Her father was Alexander Inglis Milton, an employee of a local museum in Annan and editor of a left-wing journal. She had three elder brothers, one of whom fought in the Spanish Civil War. As a teenager she worked as a messenger girl on the Isle of Arran, and later a shopworker, before joining the Women's Land Army at the outbreak of the War. However, although Milton was skilled at public speaking she also contibuted to debates through writing, such as a piece she authored in Freedom, in which she defended the tactic of direct action in contrast to, what she perceived to be, the departure toward a more sedate form of anarchist praxis espoused by Colin Ward.

Personal life In the 1950s Milton met Huw Warbarg, with whom she would be married unitl his death in 1983. Together they had a child.

Milton died after a period of ill health on 17 December 2011.