Arthur Moyse, anarchist, artist & bus conductor
(1914-2003)

Anarchist, artist and bus conductor Arthur Moyse, who has died aged 88, seems to have attended every street protest in London from the 1930s onwards. He was also involved in the London scene of the 1960s, especially the literary part around Soho's Better Books shop. It was along the way that Arthur became a self-taught artist, a cartoonist and an art critic. 



He poured out a torrent of drawings, paintings and collages for almost any alternative publication, in any country thatasked his help. His most consistent input was for Freedom, the Whitechapel-based anarchist newspaper for which he wasart critic and cartoonist from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. 

A day out with Arthur was an event. He had built up a circuit of the London art scene, which he constantlycriticised. He would have a bundle of invitations to openings, and present me as his agent. 

Arthur was born in County Wexford to Irish working-class parents, and moved to London about the same time as hisfather, a merchant seaman, was lost at sea. He often used to recount - Arthur often used to recount many things - that onhis father's death, the authorities sent a £5 note and gave his mother a job as a cleaner. The family moved toShepherd's Bush in west London, where he lived for the rest of his life. 

He spent his youth involved in leftwing activities. He was at the battle of Cable Street in 1936, when the BritishUnion of Fascists were prevented from marching into the East End. His time as a factory worker ended in 1939, when he wasconscripted into the army. He fought in various actions, including the airborne landings at Arnhem in 1944. He wascourt-martialled twice for insubordination. 

It was almost by accident that, after the war, he ended up as a bus conductor - always refusing promotion to driver.Proud of his working-class roots and slightly condescending to "middle-class" anarchists, he defined working class asgetting up at five in the morning in Bradford to go to work in the rain. He was constantly involved in union activityand local politics, and took up with the anarchist movement through visits to Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. He got toknow several of the speakers and became involved withFreedom Press. 

In the late 1970s Arthur set up his own occasional magazinecalled ZeroOne, which consisted of a front cover. TheBritish Museum used to send letters demanding copies. Healso had his ZeroOne gallery, which comprised the toilet inFreedom Press. 

Arthur had a long relationship with the Flowers artgalleries. There was a personal exhibition at the oldD'Arblay Street site in 1977, and Arthur contributed to manyother events organised by the Flowers group. A special onewas the exhibition of the letters and postcards he had sentover the years to Rachel Flowers, the daughter of thefamily. He would not have liked the term "godfather", but hehad more or less that role. 

Arthur was known for his succession of small dogs. He tookthem on marches, demonstrations, everywhere, and includedthem in most of his drawings and paintings. The loss of thelast one, Vicki, coinciding with his physical decline, meantthat he had no particular reason to go out any more. Hespent the last couple of years in his Shepherd's Bush flatsurrounded by dust, his accumulated collections of comics,first editions of everything and enough small magazines withhis illustrations to fill a museum. 

· Arthur Moyse, anarchist and artist, born June 21 1914;died February 22 2003 

— David Peers, Thursday March 13, 2003, The Guardian