Ruth's Archive

Ruth Johns died on 21st September 2025, but the family will keep this website live, and add to it, as a record of her work and achievements.

RUTH’S ARCHIVE includes documents mainly relating to the 20th and early 21st Century. A primary aim of RUTH’S ARCHIVE is to assist understanding of the recent past through the voices of ‘ordinary’ people.

Documents are from Ruth I Johns’ work; those accepted as donations to RUTH’S ARCHIVE and those contributed through participatory projects. Some projects are continuing.

RUTH’S ARCHIVE deposits its documents in relevant public archive libraries. The location of these deposits is recorded on this website. This is work in progress.

About Ruth I Johns

Her life changed dramatically when a medical injury paralysed her soon after this photo was taken. Told to accept her active life was over, she defied this prognosis. She became a community historian and many of the threads of her working life gradually came together in RUTH’S ARCHIVE.

Ruth’s earlier practical, energetic and imaginative work touched many lives through self-help and pioneering organisations which she founded, steered or supported, in a non-hierarchical way. Ruth has often communicated with people ‘at the top’ but has always preferred to work alongside people in local communities.

Since 1995, under the umbrella of RUTH’S ARCHIVE, she started new participative projects, including ‘My History of Community Activity’ and Plowright Press (see www.plowrightpress.co.uk). Ruth is author and editor of community history books and is a journalist.

Any queries about Ruth Johns' work and publications should be directed to Neil Johns, 42 Mundania Road, London SE22 0NW.