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 use ...

, 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 (trade name), 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 London Boro ...

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 of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version o ...

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and her unpublished manuscript on the Irish origins of English folksong is held at the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 The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodi ...

. 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Her circle of friends and collaborators included the composer

Alan Bush Alan Dudley Bush (22 December 1900 – 31 October 1995) was a British composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and political activist. A committed communist, his uncompromising political beliefs were often reflected in his music. He composed prol ...

, artists

Enid Marx Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx, RDI (20 October 1902 – 18 May 1998), was an English painter and designer, best known for her industrial textile designs for the London Transport Board and the Utility furniture Scheme. Marx was the first female eng ...

and Wilfred Franks, music critic John Amis and poet Douglas Newton. She was a close friend of the composer

Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as o ...

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 1945 deaths English pacifists 20th-century English writers Suicides by drowning in England