Norman Kember

Who is Norman Kember?

Norman Frank Kember is an emeritus professor of biophysics at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and a Christian pacifist active in campaigning on issues of war and peace. As a Baptist, a long-standing member of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. As a conscientious objector to military service, he worked in a hospital in the early 1950s, which stimulated his interest in medical physics.

He has been involved with the "Peace Zone" at the annual Greenbelt Festival. He became internationally known, when as a member of a delegation of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq he was taken as hostage with three other CPT members, leading to a widely publicised hostage crisis. He stated his reasons for going to Iraq were to demonstrate his opposition to the invasion of the country by the United States-led coalition and to show solidarity with the Iraqi people.