We were deeply saddened to hear that Rosy Bremer, an extraordinary Greenham Woman, died on March 27th 2025.
Rosy Bremer was a woman of immense passion and conviction who spent 35 years standing and fighting for what she believed in. Rosy first came to the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in 1989, at the age of 18. In our interview with Rosy, she said “I very strongly felt I don’t want people from another country to perceive that I’m part of something that’s threatening their existence”
Rosy arrived at the camp in early August, just before Hiroshima Day, which is marked annually on August 6th to commemorate the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Rosy arrived in the aftermath of another Greenham Woman, Helen Thomas being killed by a police vehicle.
Rosy came to Greenham ‘want[ing] to seek out groups that were doing something, and that were being very effective.’ We will never know what could have happened if Rosy arrived on a different day or at a different gate but that moment was pivotal for her. As well as getting deeply involved in the Peace Camp and it’s actions against the US nuclear weapons, Rosy became part of a small group of Greenham Women fighting alongside Helen’s family, for justice.
Rosy lived at the first camp established at the site – Yellow Gate – part time for a few years while studying and working, before living there full time for four years from 1993. She received 13 prison sentences for refusing to pay fines, and held firm to her principles all the way.
After Greenham, she worked to help release people from immigration detention, was active in numerous peace and social justice groups and an active colleague in a later job at Portsmouth University, always defending workers’ rights.
An activist until the last, Rosy was *not* arrested for spray painting ‘Love Gaza, Love Rafah, Love Peace‘ onto the walls of Portsmouth’s naval base, which is one of the many global locations of arms company BAE systems, in February 2024, a year before her death.
Rosy believed heartily that when individuals get together to take on an injustice, or a state authority, they can fight and win. May we all have a flicker of Rosy’s conviction within us. We are living in dark times, and collective action remains vital.
Read or listen to Rosy’s 2019 interview with us here
Find out more about Rosy on Wikipedia
Read this lovely tribute to her from sister Greenham Woman Frances Vigay in Portsmouth paper The Star and Crescent
And listen out on Friday at 4pm – Rosy’s obituary will be featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Last Word and thereafter on the related podcast.
Rest in power Rosy. You will be sorely missed.