My father, Lyonel Evans, who has died aged 84, was a pacifist but he was rarely peaceful. Always one of the first to bang the drum for a cause, he often led a gang of people who would either be full of admiration for his efforts or would fall out with him.
Lyonel was a conscientious objector in the early 1950s and, having refused to do national service, was punished with three months in jail and a year of community service, which allowed him to meet my mother, Sheila, who was a nurse in the hospital where he was sent to work. They married in 1953 and celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary before Sheila's death in 2009.
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