Hannah Margaret Stanton

Hannah Margaret Stanton was born on 30 November 1913, Teddington, Middlesex, England.

In 1956 she went out to visit her brother, Fr Tom Stanton CR, in South Africa and decided to stay behind and work.

She worked at the Tumelong Anglican mission in Lady Selborne, then a mixed black township on the edge of Pretoria.

Stanton's own role was marginal - letters to the press, membership of the non-racial Liberal Party (LPSA), and so on.

On 30 March 1960 she was arrested and held in the Pretoria prison. The arrest aroused public opinion round the world. Parliamentary questions, diplomatic scurrying and protests followed.

Her own account of nearly two months in prison (Go Well, Stay Well, 1961) deals with her incarceration, resolution and refusal of the 'deal' the High Commissioner, John Maud, brought her; freedom if she agreed to leave the country immediately.

Her cell-mate, Helen Joseph, won her over to the African National Congress (ANC). She was deported in mid-May 1960 and in England she became a great asset to the anti-apartheid campaign and Canon John Collins's Defence and Aid work.

Stanton then went on to Makerere University, in Uganda, teaching theology and caring for students and as secretary of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, as dedicated social worker and lay reader from 1962 to 1970.

Hannah Margaret Stanton passed away on 9 December 1993, in Esher, Surrey, England.