Norman Kember

Norman Kember

Norman Frank Kember (born 1931) 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 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 he - as a senior volunteer of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraq - 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.