Francesca Allinson (born Enid Ellen Pulvermacher Allinson; 20 August 1902 – 7 April 1945) was an English writer, musician and puppeteer. She was the youngest child of the pioneering physician and wholemeal bread entrepreneur Dr

Thomas Allinson Thomas Richard Allinson (29 March 1858 – 29 November 1918) was an English physician, dietetic reformer, businessman, journalist and vegetarianism activist. He was a proponent of wholemeal (whole grain) bread consumption. His name is still us ...

, and sister of the artist Adrian Allinson.

Biography

Allinson wrote the semi-autobiographical book ''A Childhood'' which was published by

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...

in 1937. She was a musician, a puppeteer, a conductor with the London Labour Choral Union, and wrote extensively on the origins of English folk song, clashing with the composer

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

on the subject. She published editions of

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...

and

Orlando Gibbons Orlando Gibbons ( bapt. 25 December 1583 – 5 June 1625) was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical famil ...

and her unpublished manuscript on the Irish origins of English folksong is held at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Allinson was a pacifist and established a community farm in East Grinstead, Surrey, where conscientious objectors worked during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Her circle of friends and collaborators included the composer Alan Bush, artists Enid Marx and

Wilfred Franks Wilfred Florestan Franks (1908–2003) was a British artist, designer, sculptor, dancer and actor. He married Daphne Rudd in 1951 Biography Franks trained at the Staatliche Bauhochschule (de) in Weimar, Germany from 1929 to 1930. He also atte ...

, music critic

John Amis John Preston Amis (17 June 1922 – 1 August 2013) was a British broadcaster, classical music critic, music administrator, and writer. He was a frequent contributor for ''The Guardian'' and to BBC radio and television music programming. Life a ...

and poet Douglas Newton. She was a close friend of the composer Michael Tippett who dedicated two of his compositions to her, ''Piano Sonata no.1'' (1936–38) and ''The Heart's Assurance'' (1950-51); the latter was written in response to Allinson's death. In old age Tippett was asked if he had ever been close to a woman, he replied, "Oh yes. Indeed. All through my life, Francesca Allinson, who I was closer to than almost anybody. It was a strange, tender, extremely tender, gentle relationship." Through much of the 1930s Allinson was involved in a same-sex relationship with Judith Wogan, a producer of plays and owner of the Grafton Theatre on London's Tottenham Court Road. Allinson died in 1945 by suicide by drowning in the River Stour in Clare, Suffolk. She left suicide notes for both Tippett and Wogan, the one left for Tippett included the following: ''"Darling - it's no good - I can't hold on any longer. One has to be a better and stronger character than me to be able to face a life of individualism... I have thought endlessly about whether it is wrong - and perhaps it is. But one would have to feel very sure about its wrongness to go on existing as a helpless unhelping unit in the terrible post-war years that are to come... If we have to live many lives, may I live near those I now love again and make a better job of living... I can't live without the warm enfolding love of another person - and in this life I have smashed up the chance of that (in my love too). Darling forgive me. I am so tired and have been for so many years. All my love, Fresc."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allinson, Francesca 1902 births 1945 suicides English pacifists 20th-century English writers Suicides by drowning in England