Oliver Postgate

Name: Richard Oliver Postgate (April 1925-Dec 2008)

Tribunal: NA. Did not register a conscientious objector in the prescribed way.

Court Martial: 1942

Sentence: 3 months in prison then land work

Image: Stella Bowen: Oliver Postgate, 1934. Oil on compressed card. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Childhood

Born in 1925 into a prominent socialist household. His mother Daisy (nee Lansbury) was a suffragette. His father Raymond was a Communist member until the British party subordinated itself to the Bolsheviks to supremacy in 1922. Raymond was by World War 2 editing Tribune, the Labour Party magazine. After growing up in Finchley,  Oliver attended Dartington Hall School in Devon, a progressive institution where students were encouraged to develop their own curriculum. 

He went on to study art in Kingston, and joined the Home Guard when war broke out

Conscientious Objection

Oliver Postgate was  called up in 1942.  He did not join the register of conscientious objectors but rather attended medical examination, then reported to the Army in Windsor whereupon he stated his refusal. He was detained and court martialled, serving a prison term as a result before being sent to do land work until the end of the war. 

Postgate's father Raymond had been a conscientious objector in the First World War. According to cultural historian Matthew Street speaking on BBC Radio 4's Great Lives), father and son nevertheless disagreed about Oliver's decision.

After World War II, Postgate volunteered in occupied Germany in orphanages helping to ensure children were fed.

After the war

It was some time after the war that Postgate would become famous for puppetry and animation for children's television. After continuing his education, he met and married Prudence "Prue" Myers as his telveision career was burgeoning in 1957.  As well as becoming stepfather to Prue's three children, they had three children together.

Postgate began collaborating with Peter Firmin. Together they developed beloved characters including Ivor the Engine (1976), Noggin the Nog (1959), the Clangers (1969), and Bagpuss (1974), which is thought by many to be the best ever children television character.

Postgate also helped campaign against nuclear weapons, creating the pamphlet The writing on the sky (1982).