Douglas Arnold Hyde (8 April 1911,

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

– 19 September 1996,

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

) was an English political journalist and writer. Originally a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

and the news editor of the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

,'' he resigned in 1948 and converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. After his conversion, he gained an international reputation in the late 1940s and 1950s as a prominent and outspoken critic of communism. His most famous publication, ''I Believed'', was a great financial success, created with the help of MI6, with reprints secretly being sponsored by the UK Foreign Office's

Information Research Department The Information Research Department (IRD) was a secret Cold War propaganda department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Foreign Office, created to publish anti-communist propaganda, including black propaganda, provide support and i ...

(IRD) to be used as anti-Soviet propaganda.

Background

Hyde grew up in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

and was brought up as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

. In his youth, he was an active member in a number of political organisations which brought him into contact with communists. He became a Methodist lay preacher and continued this work for some time in parallel with membership of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

. He became a communist at age 17 in 1928.

Career

After a period working in North Wales, he moved to London in 1938 and became the news editor of the ''

''. He announced his resignation from the newspaper and from the

in 1948, expressing disillusionment with the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's post-war foreign policy.

Work with the British secret service

After his resignation, he converted to Catholicism and published an autobiography, ''I Believed: The Autobiography of a Former British Communist'', detailing his political and religious journey.Kevin Morgan
"Obituary: Douglas Hyde"
''The Independent'', London, 29 September 1996 During this period, his activities received funding from the British Foreign Office's

, and ''I Believed'' was republished by an IRD front called Ampersand which translated and distributed the book overseas. The book was written with help from MI6. Hyde also wrote a book, ''Dedication and Leadership'', about his experiences and the specific tactics of the communists especially in the way that they recruited their members and built them into leaders. He embarked on international anti-communist lecturing tours, and contributed a long-running column to the ''

Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...

'' newspaper which was syndicated in several countries. His writings and speeches attracted considerable global attention, ''I Believed: The Autobiography of a Former British Communist'', selling over one million copies in its first ten years of publication.

Later life and death

Hyde was sympathetic to the emergence of liberation theology, and was dismayed by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

's opposition to it. He became disillusioned with and distanced himself from the Catholic Church in the 1980s and 1990s, listing himself as an "

agnostic Christian Christian agnosticism, or agnostic Christianity, is a theological perspective that blends core elements of Christianity with an agnostic outlook on religious certainty. Christian agnostics generally believe in the existence of God or a higher power ...

" on his last hospital admission form. He blocked the republication of his book ''I Believed'', stating it no longer represented his views. He was on good terms with several veterans of the

such as former MP

Phil Piratin Philip Piratin (15 May 1907 – 10 December 1995) was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and one of the four CPGB Members of Parliament during the first thirty years of its existence. (The others were Shapurji Saklatvala, ...

in the years before his death in 1996. The ''

'' obituary noted that Hyde, a former assistant editor of the newspaper, "ended his life no longer a practising Catholic, but with a renewed interest in Socialism".''Catholic Herald'', 4 October 1996.

Works

* German translation ''Anders als ich glaubte'', Herder, Freiburg, 1957 (=''Herder-Bücherei'', No. 1). * ''The Answer to Communism'', Paternoster Publications, London, 1949. * ''Communism from the Inside'',

Catholic Truth Society Catholic Truth Society (CTS) is a body that prints and publishes Catholic literature, including apologetics, prayerbooks, spiritual reading, and lives of saints. It is based in London, United Kingdom. The CTS had been founded in 1868 by Cardi ...

, London, 1949. * ''Communism and the Home'', Catholic Truth Society, London, 1950. * ''God's Bandit: The Story of Don Orione, "Father of the Poor"'', Peter Davies, London, 1952. Italian (1955), French (1956), German (1957) and Polish (1980) translations. * ''Communism at Work'', Catholic Truth Society, London, 1953. * ''Red Star Versus the Cross: The Pattern of Persecution'' (with Francis Dufay), Paternoster Publications, London, 1954 * ''One Front across the World'', William Heinemann, London. 1955; Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland, 1956. * ''The Mind behind New China'', Phoenix House, London, 1956. * ''Dedication and Leadership'', University of Notre Dame Press, 1956. There is a 1992 edition. * ''The Peaceful Assault: The Pattern of Subversion. A Background Book'', The Bodley Head, London, 1963. * ''The Roots of Guerilla Warfare. A Background Book'', The Bodley Head, London, 1965. * ''Confrontation in the East. A Background Book'', The Bodley Head, London, 1965. * ''The Troubled Continent: A New Look at Latin America'', Pflaum Press, Dayton, Ohio, 1967.
''Communism Today''

Gill and Macmillan A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they ar ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, 1972;

University of Notre Dame Press The University of Notre Dame Press is a university press that is part of the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. The press was founded in 1949, and claims to be the largest Catholic university press in the world. The ...

, 1973.

Footnotes

External links

Biography
a
The Spartacus Educational
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, Douglas 1911 births 1996 deaths English people imprisoned abroad Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism English Roman Catholics English anti-communists English communists English political writers People from Worthing Information Research Department Former Marxists