0:02

Hello from Wonder Media Network.

0:04

I'm Melt and Burak. I'm the host

0:06

and producer of the podcast SESTA.

0:09

We aim to harness the power of arts and culture

0:11

to foster conversation and build peace

0:13

and Cyprus I'll be your guests

0:15

for this month of Womanica. This

0:18

month, we're highlighting peace builders in

0:20

times of conflict. These women have stepped

0:22

in bringing their creativity and insight

0:25

to facilitate peace across the globe.

0:30

Today we're talking about a renowned rose

0:32

grower and UNTI nuclear power

0:34

compaigner. Through her denunciation

0:37

of the nuclear industry, she advocated

0:39

for the preservation of the environment and the

0:41

protection of people. Let's

0:44

talk about Hilda Morrell. For

0:52

most of us, learning a second language

0:54

in high school or college wasn't exactly a high

0:56

point of our academic careers. I

0:59

to ex Spanish throughout high school and class

1:01

itself was fun, but looking back, basically

1:03

nothing stuck. Now, thanks

1:05

to Babel, the language learning app that sold

1:07

more than ten million subscriptions, there's

1:10

an addictively fun and easy way to learn

1:12

a new language, whether you'll be traveling

1:14

abroad, connecting in a deeper way with family,

1:16

or you just have some free time Babel

1:18

teaches bite sized language lessons that you'll actually

1:21

use in the real world. I chose French

1:23

because much of my family speaks fluently and I

1:25

previously could barely say hello. With

1:27

Babel, you can choose from fourteen different languages,

1:30

including Spanish, French, Italian, and

1:32

German. There are so many ways to learn

1:34

with Babel, Plus it comes with a twenty

1:36

day money back guarantee. Start

1:38

your new language learning journey today with Babel

1:41

right now. When you purchase a three month Babel subscription,

1:43

you'll get an additional three months for free.

1:46

That's six months for the price of three.

1:48

Just go to babel dot com and use promo

1:50

code Womanica. That's Babbel

1:53

dot com code Womanica. Hilda

2:00

was born on February third, nineteen

2:02

oh six in Shrewsbury, England. It

2:05

was a fortuous hometown for someone like

2:07

Hilda, who would become so interested

2:10

in the environment. About a hundred

2:12

years earlier, naturalist and biologist

2:14

Charles Darwin was also born in Shrewsbury.

2:19

The green pumb in the Morrell family run

2:21

Deep. Hilda came from a family

2:23

of seatsman, florists and nurseryman

2:26

that dated back to eighteen thirty seven,

2:29

founded by her grandfather. The Morrall family

2:31

run Port Nurseries, a family

2:34

rose nursery and seat shop business

2:36

that was well known and well regarded.

2:39

Her grandfather run the business until he

2:41

died in nineteen oh eight. He

2:43

left the business to his sons, Hilda's

2:46

father and uncle. From

2:48

a young age, Hilda excelled academically.

2:51

She was the head girl at the Shrewsbury

2:54

Girls High School. Her success

2:56

earned her scholarship to Newham College

2:58

in Cambridge. Just a year

3:00

after Hilda graduated college,

3:03

she joined the family business and

3:06

she was a natural. She

3:08

had business skills at a deep understanding

3:11

of horticulture. By in nineteen

3:13

thirty seven she had become the director

3:15

of the nursery. In

3:19

her new role, Hilda became particularly

3:22

fascinated by roses. She

3:24

became an expert and an internationally

3:26

respected rose grower, knowledgeable

3:29

in all aspects including planting

3:31

species and cultivating. Under

3:34

her leadership, the nursery thrived.

3:37

It won several awards that flower shows

3:39

around England, and Hilda attracted

3:41

famous clients including the Queen Mother

3:44

and the Churchills, as well as Vitasakaville

3:47

West. All

3:49

of this work is incredibly peaceful.

3:52

However, Hilda was also actively

3:55

trying to promote peace outside of horticulture.

3:59

The same organizational skills that aided

4:01

her in business also helped

4:03

in her volunteer work. During the Second

4:06

World War, Hilda

4:08

helped care for Jewish refugee children

4:10

and placed them and foced her homes as goals.

4:13

She also raised money to support their resettlement

4:16

by organizing recitals

4:18

that featured world renowned

4:20

artists. After

4:23

leading the business for more than thirty years,

4:25

Hilda retired in nineteen seventy and

4:28

sold the nursery. For

4:31

years, Hilda had spent her free

4:33

time walking and wandering around Shrewsbury,

4:36

the Hill country in particular. In

4:39

the process, she formed a

4:41

deep connection with the wildlife and

4:43

a concern about the countryside's

4:46

preservation. Hilda

4:48

was a founding member of the Shropshire

4:50

Wildlife Trust and the National

4:53

Soil Association, which promotes

4:55

organic horticulture. She

4:57

was also involved with the Campaign for the protect

5:00

of Rural England. Hilda's

5:02

environmental activism bred her

5:05

interest in the pollution crisis and

5:07

the dangers of nuclear energy and weapons.

5:11

Hilda meticulously researched the

5:13

threats posed by nuclear energy and weapons.

5:16

She feared the inevitability

5:18

of nuclear disaster, but she

5:21

also thought it was avoidable. Armed

5:24

with this mindset and her research, she

5:26

brought her findings to the attention of those

5:29

impositions of power to those

5:31

with the ability and responsibility

5:33

to do something about it. In

5:37

nineteen seventy eight, she published a paper

5:39

entitled What Price Nuclear Power?

5:42

The paper confronted the realities of

5:44

the economic impact of the civil

5:46

nuclear industry. Then

5:49

the Three Mile Island accident happened

5:51

in the US. It was the first

5:53

step and a nuclear nightmare, as

5:55

far as we know at this hour, no worse

5:57

than that. An equipment failure caused

6:00

a nuclear power plant to release radioactive

6:03

gas into the atmosphere. There

6:05

was no apparent serious contamination of

6:07

workers, but a nuclear safety group

6:09

said that radiation inside the plant is

6:11

at eight times the deadly level,

6:14

so strong that after passing through a

6:16

three foot the concrete wall, it

6:18

can be measured a mile away.

6:21

After that, Hilda shifted her

6:23

focus to safety of nuclear power. Hilda

6:26

believed the disposal of radioactive

6:29

waste was the crux of the issue with the

6:31

industry. After

6:33

what happened in the US, she wanted

6:35

to put pressure on Britain's government and

6:38

its policies on radioactive waste.

6:41

Hilda discovered just how difficult

6:43

radioactive waste was to manage, and

6:46

with its dangerous and toxic traits,

6:49

she knew its management was imperative

6:51

to maintaining a clean and safe

6:53

environment. In nineteen

6:56

eighty two, the Department of the Environment

6:58

published a paper about the British government's

7:00

policy on radioactive waste management.

7:03

Hilda wasn't satisfied with it, so

7:06

she wrote a response critiquing it

7:09

and outlining the dangers of radioactive

7:11

waste. Hilda was scheduled

7:14

to present it at a public investigation

7:16

into a nuclear power station in

7:18

Suffolk, but

7:22

before she could, in March

7:25

nineteen eighty four, Hilda was

7:27

burglarized, kidnapped, stabbed

7:30

and left to die in a grew near Shrewsbury.

7:36

It wasn't until two thousand and three that

7:38

the police arrested and charged a man named

7:41

Andrew George for her murder, but

7:44

some people weren't convinced. There

7:47

are many conspiracy theories surrounding

7:50

Hilda's murder. Her

7:52

nephew did not believe that Andrew

7:54

George was the killer, despite

7:56

his DNA being found at the scene. A

7:59

member of Parliament maintained the belief

8:02

that Hilda's death was politically

8:04

motivated. A former

8:06

cellmate of Andrew George said that

8:08

George confessed to killing Hilda, but

8:10

that he did not act alone. The

8:13

police, meanwhile, remains steadfast

8:15

in their statement that this was a burglary

8:18

gone wrong. The

8:21

truth of Hilda's tragic death remains

8:23

a mystery, but what is for sure

8:25

is that Hilda was an environmental champion

8:28

who was not afraid to challenge authority.

8:31

In her obituary, her friend Charles

8:33

Sinker wrote, her close friends remember

8:36

her as a fierce but fundamentally

8:38

gentle warrior, a Bunyan like

8:40

soul on a lonely and a constant

8:43

quest for the real path of the spirits.

8:46

She died in tragic circumstances,

8:48

alone in the empty countryside. It

8:51

is an almost intolerable irony

8:53

that a life so dedicated to peaceful

8:56

pursuits and to the pursuit of

8:58

peace should have terminated

9:00

by an act of mindless violence.

9:06

All month we've honored peace builders. Tune

9:09

in tomorrow for the beginning of a new theme.

9:12

For more information, find us on Facebook

9:14

and Instagram. Add to Womenica Podcasts

9:17

special thanks to co creators Jenny and Liz

9:19

Kaplan for having me as a guest host.