Michael Scott (priest)

Guthrie Michael Scott (30 July 1907 – 14 September 1983) was an Anglican priest and anti-apartheid activist, who joined in the defiance of the apartheid system in South Africa in the 1940s – a long struggle for social justice in that country.

He was also an early advocate of nuclear disarmament.

Scott was born in Sussex on 30 July 1907 and educated at King's College, Taunton, Chichester Theological College and St Paul's College, Grahamstown.

He was ordained by George Bell in 1932 and began his career with curacies in Slaugham and Kensington.

He was Domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Bombay from 1935 to 1937; and then served at St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta.

In 1943 he moved to Johannesburg where he was Chaplain to the St Alban's Mission.

While there he became the first white man to be jailed for resisting that country's racial laws.

In 1952, he co-founded the Africa Bureau, "an organisation to advise and support Africans who wished to oppose by constitutional means political decisions affecting their lives and futures imposed by alien governments."

He was a leading international promoter of Namibian independence along with Chief Hosea Kutako and Captain Hendrik Samuel Witbooi.

For his efforts in the Namibian War of Independence, he has a prominent street named after him in Windhoek.

Scott wrote an autobiography A Time to Speak, published by Faber and Faber in 1958.

With Bertrand Russell, he was co-founder of the Committee of 100 in 1960.

He met Martin Luther King Jr. during Ghana's celebration of independence.

In later life, Scott was a friend of the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

He died on 14 September 1983.

There is a memorial window to him at St Pancras Church, Kingston near Lewes.

Along with his philosopher friend Bertrand Russell, Scott was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.

As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.