The very first task the Trust undertook was creating a travelling exhibition on the work of ‘Mothers for Peace’.  This was curated by Sue Cross at a cost of £3000 and consisted of five full-length panels.  It was launched at William Penn House, Byng Place, London WC1 on 29th January 1988.

 

The aim of establishing a network of Peace Education Centres began with the York Peace Centre becoming Give Peace A Chance (York) in 1989.  This was followed by Brighton (1991), Milton Keynes (1992) and Scarborough (1992).  The first meeting of the Peace Education Centres Network was at Brighton (1991) and the second at Milton Keynes (1993).  As the decade developed, it was a fact that the energy behind local peace work was increasingly directed into the green or environmental movement and whilst contacts were received from Ipswich and Watford no further developments occurred.

 

At the same time, the Trust was becoming increasingly involved in working to establish a National Peace Museum.  In 1991 the Trust created terms of reference for a working group on the peace museum project whose members would be appointed by the Trust.  Because creating a peace museum was a novel project with no British script to follow, the Trust, in conjunction with Peter van den Dungen of the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University, convened and financially underwrote the first meeting of international peace and peace-related museums at Bradford from 10-12 September 1992.  It was a great success and a necessary part of the learning process in figuring out the way ahead.  Following the conference the Trust made possible a twice-yearly international newsletter edited by Peter van den Dungen.

 

In 1993 the initial Working Group was re-constituted as the Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Clive Barrett and with membership wider than just Quakers.  A Project Officer, Carol Rank, was employed from July 1994 and a lease was taken of a small suite of four rooms in the former Bradford Wool Exchange.  The following year the Local Authority provided further office space in their Jacob’s Well building.

 

Internationally, the second conference was held in 1995 at the Austrian Peace Centre at Schlaining, a former castle given a modern ‘swords into ploughshares’ use.  Domestically, the Project Office was engaging with Bradford by producing ‘Such a Journey’ a book of the peace stories and recollections of Bradford citizens and an exhibition entitled ‘Peacemakers’ being portrait drawings of peace people by Peggy Smith (1895-1976) and a City Peace Trail.

 

In 1997 the Trust registered a limited company with charitable status, The Peace Museum, and on 1st January 1998 the company with seven directors became responsible for establishing the peace museum project on the second floor of 10 Piece Hall Yard, Bradford.  The fledgling had at last flown from the Give Peace A Chance Trust nest.  The initial directors were Ron Barden, Clive Barrett, Gerald Drewett, Peter van den Dungen, Tony Kempster, and Carol Rank under the  chairpersonship of Elnora Ferguson.

 

By the year 2000, the Trust had passed to The Peace Museum company the right to appoint its own directors.  Additionally, it was assisting the York, Brighton and Milton Keynes Centres to achieve their own independent charitable status.  The Peace Museum became Gerald Drewett’s principal engagement and the Give Peace A Chance Trust continued on a semi-hibernating basis whist continuing to support The Peace Museum financially.