Get involved with SoundScapeRegister here to receive your next issue of SoundScape ezineFor editorial opportunities email the editor at soundscape@noise-abatement.orgTo advertise in SoundScape email sales at soundscape@noise-abatement.orgWith a unique perspective on noise and its effects, SoundScape is teeming with insightful, intelligent features. Bringing into focus the complexity of sound and its infl uence and impact. It sheds light on society's perceptions and experiences of the aural landscape.SoundScape explores and assesses the power of sound in all areas, including:Building ? Community ? Creativity ? Education ? Environment ? Government ? Health ? Innovation ? Policy ? Research ? Science ? Technology ? Tranquility SoundScapewhere life sounds goodSoundScapeIssue 0229

Standing on the shoulders of giants SoundScape explores the NAS membership archives and discovers a Hall of Fame Fifty-two years ago, the proliferation of noise making engines and equipment brought 20 erudite thinkers together with a common aim. John Connell OBE, founder of the NAS, convened a National Council to protect "the sensitive, the intelligent, the sick and the aged" against the ravages of noise - "the forgotten pollutant". The health, safety and intellect of society were eminently represented by leading minds of the time. But who were these people of action who, in just one year, managed to get the Noise Abatement Act 1960 passed?Our records show that the founding members included, amongst others: Consulting physician Sir Walter Fergusson HannayEntrepreneur John Connell OBE Poet Laureate and broadcaster Sir John Betjeman CBENobel Prize winner and poet T. S. Eliot Barrister and Deputy Commissioner ofthe Metropolitan Police Sir Ronald Howe CVO MCMedical Offi cer of Health Dr John Lancelot BurnAviation and motor company president and chairmanSir Miles Thomas DFCRoyal portrait painterSir Gerald Kelly Architect, author and acoustician Hope Bagenal OBE Film director Maurice Elvey The Reverend Hon. Andrew Elphinstone Author, playwright and gardenerBeverley NicholsPolitician, author and journalistRoy Bradford Surgeon and ENT specialistJohn Chalmers Ballantyne CBEThis illustrious and determined company refused to accept that intrusive, incessant noise was the price to be paid for progress. They had lived and breathed the devastation of wars and smogs, and would not let noise become the next scourge of the British landscape and people. Their passion was perhaps no more evident than when, in an effort to once and for all hold policy makers to account they, with journalists and photographers in tow, 'doorstepped' aviation minister Duncan Sandys CH PC in the very early hours one morning - waking him with a crashing din. When he came angrily to the door in his bath robe to confront the protestors, he was met by NAS founder John Connell OBE who remarked (to the effect of): 'How does it feel to be awoken in the middle of the night by noise not of your making?' With no doubt more than a little chagrin, Sandys fulfi lled on his pre-general election promise to back the proposed new noise abatement legislation and also stop night fl ights. Sense and sensibilityArtists, writers and musicians have long supported the work of the NAS, as so beautifully put by founding member T.S. Eliot in "The Dry Salvages" from Four Quartets,"Where shall the word be found, Where shall the word Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence" However, it was not just for art's sake that T.S. Eliot was aligned with the NAS, but for the bigger picture. Chillingly illustrated by his portentous remark in 1939 in The Idea of a Christian Society "We are being made aware that the organisation of society on the principle of private profi t, as well as public destruction, is leading both to the 52 years ago NAS founder, John Connell OBE, convened a National Council to protect "the sensitive, the intelligent, the sick and the aged" against the ravages of noise - "the forgotten pollutant" SoundScapeIssue 02 30