Patrick Pottle was a founder member of the Committee of 100, an anti-nuclear direct action group which broke away from CND.

In 1962, at the height of the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, Pottle was jailed for 18 months for conspiracy to organise the Committee of 100 demonstrations at the nuclear base USAF Wethersfield

RAF Wethersfield

MDPGA Wethersfield is a Ministry of Defence facility in Essex, England; it is located north of the village of Wethersfield—about north-west of the town of Braintree...

 in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

.

In Wormwood Scrubs prison Pottle met the spy George Blake

George Blake

George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...

 and his outrage at the “vicious” sentence imposed on the spy led him and two others, Michael Randle

Michael Randle

Dr. Michael Randle is best known as a peace campaigner and peace researcher, one of the pioneers of nonviolent direct action in Britain, and also for his role in helping the Soviet spy George Blake escape from a British prison in 1966....

 and Sean Bourke

Sean Bourke

Sean Bourke , from Limerick, helped Michael Randle and Pat Pottle to arrange the 22 October 1966 prison escape of the Soviet spy, George Blake....

, to free Blake in October 1966.

A few months after Blake's escape, Pottle met and married Susan Abrahams, daughter of the Olympic champion Harold Abrahams

Harold Abrahams

Harold Maurice Abrahams, CBE, was a British athlete of Jewish origin. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire.-Early life:...

 and his wife Sybil Evers

Sybil Evers

Sybil Marjorie Evers was a British mezzo-soprano and actress. She was the wife of Olympic champion runner Harold Abrahams.-Career:...

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