‘War is Over’ card sent from John Lennon to Harold Wilson revealed
A Christmas card sent from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Harold Wilson, which the then-prime Minister marked “no”, has gone on display in a museum.
The card, which reads “War is Over! If you want it” and is signed“withlovetothewilsons from the Lennons”, was sent in December1969whenthebeatle and his wife launched a poster campaign as part of their peace campaign.
It was rescued from the “nutty filing” cabinet in Downing Street by secretary and Beatles fanruthferenczy,whokeptthe cardathomeuntilherdaughter Alex Rowe decided to loan it to Theliverpoolbeatlesmuseum.
Mrsrowe,51,said:“therewas a thing called the ‘nutty filing’, soanystrangepostthatcameto No10wasputinthe‘nuttyfiling’.
“My mum was filing one day andcameacrossthiscardsoshe saidtoherboss:‘lookatthis,the Prime Minister doesn’t want it, can I keep it?’ and the boss said yes she could.
“Apparently Harold Wilson would write in green pen and if he was going to respond to mail he would write yes or no.
“There’s a little green ‘no’ on this card which means he didn’t want to respond.”
Mrs Ferenczy, now 81 and livinginspain,tookthecardhome where it was displayed on a shelf, her daughter said.
Mrs Rowe added: “It’s just beensittingonashelfallmylife, nobody else has seen it as far as I know.”
The card was unveiled at the museum yesterday, when friend of the Beatles, Tony Bramwell, spoke to fans who had gathered to see the display.
Mr Bramwell, who ran the group’s label Apple Records for a time, said as part of the War is Over! campaign he was tasked with organising for huge billboards bearing the slogan to be displayed at locations across theworld,aswellassendingout cards with the message on.
He said: “There were thousands of those Christmas cards, we sent them to everybody in the address book. John and Yoko would send them specifically to people they wanted to wind up, well who John wantedtowindupandyokothought
would bring world peace. Anything aimed at Harold Wilson was a dig.”
Mr Wilson, who was MP
for Huyton in Merseyside, had nominated the Fab Four for MBES in 1965 – John later returned his in protest to Britain’s involvement in the
Vietnam War, the Biafra massacre and for Cold Turkey “slipping down the charts”.