J.D. Bernal was active in the Peace Movement in the 1930s, belonging to the National Peace Council, the International Peace Campaign, the Cambridge Scientists Anti-War Group and other organisations. These papers, however, derive from his work for the World Peace Council. Bernal attended the meeting at Wroclaw, 25-28 August 1948, called by French and Polish intellectuals. He was a vice-chairman of the Preparatory Commission which called the World Congress of Partisans of Peace, Paris and Prague, 20-23 April 1949, which set up the World Peace Council.

In 1958, after Joliot-Curie’s death, Bernal became chairman of the Presidential Committee of the World Peace Council. He had his own office in London. He retired from ill-health in 1965. When the London Office was closed, some of its files were sent to the archives of the World Peace Council in Helsinki; the remainder form the bulk of the papers in this section. Andy Walker was Bernal’s assistant, working full-time from the London Office. Ivor Montagu represented Bernal at meetings that he was too busy or too unwell to attend.