At their height in the early 1960s they attracted tens of thousands of people and were the highlight of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) calendar.
The first major Aldermaston march at Easter (4–7 April), 1958, was organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and supported by the recently formed CND.
[1][2] Hugh Brock, one of the organisers, records that he was one of thirty-five people to have marched to Aldermaston six years before in 1952 as part of Operation Gandhi.
A large group, led by Peter Cadogan (an activist in the direct-action Committee of 100), left the march, against the wishes of the CND leadership, to demonstrate at RSG 6.
[5] The Aldermaston March Committee for the first march comprised April Carter, Hugh Brock, Pat Arrowsmith and Michael Randle from DAC; Frank Allaun MP and Walter Wolfgang from the Labour H-Bomb Campaign; and, Bayard Rustin from the War Resisters League (WRL).
Ewan MacColl's English text of Song of Hiroshima was sung on the Aldermaston Marches by the London Youth Choir.