Frida Knight (1910–1996) was an English

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 ...

activist and author.

Life

Born Frideswide Frances Emma Stewart, and known as Frida, she was the daughter of

Hugh Fraser Stewart Hugh Fraser Stewart (1863–1948) was a British academic, churchman and literary critic. Life He was the second son of Ludovic(k) Charles Stewart, an army surgeon and son of Ludovick Stewart of Pityvaich, and Emma Ray or Rae. He was educated at ...

(1863–1948) and his wife Jessie Graham Crum; her sister Caitin (Katherine) married

George Derwent Thomson George Derwent Thomson (; 1903 – 3 February 1987) was a British classical scholar, Marxist philosopher, and scholar of the Irish language. Classical scholar Thomson studied Classics at King's College, Cambridge, where he attained First ...

, and her brother Ludovic married Alice Mary Naish. She left school at 14 with a heart condition, and spent time in Italy. A student of music and drama, Stewart went with one of her sisters to Germany in 1928, studying the violin, and then went to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

. She spent time at the Manchester University Settlement and Hull University College. In 1935 she visited 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 ...

on a British Drama League trip. Stewart then joined the

Left Book Club The Left Book Club is a publishing group that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain, during its initial run, from 1936 to 1948. It was relaunched in 2015 by Jan Woolf and Neil Faulkner, in collaboration with Pluto Press. Pionee ...

and

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 ...

, and formed local Spanish Aid committees on the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. She drove an ambulance to Spain on behalf of the

National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief The National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief (NJCSR) was a British voluntary association formed at the end of 1936, intended to co-ordinate relief efforts to the victims of the Spanish Civil War. The NJCSR was to act as an umbrella organization, ...

. In 1937 she was at a hospital in Murcia with Kathleen MacColgan and Eunice Chapman. Arrested in France in 1940, after the German invasion, Stewart was in the Caserne Vauban (

Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...

) and then the Vittel internment camp. She escaped in 1942, with Rosemary Say. She then worked for the

Free French Free France () was a resistance government claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...

in London. In later life Frida Knight wrote, and campaigned for many causes.

Works

*''Dawn Escape'', Everybody's Books (1943) *''The Strange Case of Thomas Walker'', Lawrence & Wishart (1957) *''University Rebel: the life of William Frend (1757–1841)'', Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (1971) *''Beethoven and the Age of Revolution'', International Publishers (1973) *''Letters to William Frend from the Reynolds family of Little Paxton and John Hammond of Fenstanton 1793–1814'' (editor, 1974) *''The French Resistance, 1940 to 1944'', Lawrence & Wishart, (1975) (First published in ''Marxism Today'', December 1965) *''Cambridge Music: from the Middle Ages to modern times'' (1980) *''Firing a Shot for Freedom, the Memoirs of Frida Stewart'', with a foreword and afterword by Angela Jackson,

The Clapton Press The Clapton Press is an independent publisher based in London E5, established in 2018. Memories of Spain Although its publication list is not restricted to any particular theme, The Clapton Press has a strong interest in Spain and Latin America. ...

(2020), She translated ''The Lost Letter and Other Plays'' by

Ion Luca Caragiale Ion Luca Caragiale (; According to his birth certificate, published and discussed by Constantin Popescu-Cadem in ''Manuscriptum'', Vol. VIII, Nr. 2, 1977, pp. 179–184 – 9 June 1912), commonly referred to as I. L. Caragiale, was a Romanians, ...

(1956).

Family

She married microbiologist Bert Cyril James Gabriel Knight in 1944 and had five children, of whom four survived infancy. The couple moved to Cambridge on Bert Knight's retirement and Knight remained there after being widowed in 1981.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Frida 1910 births 1996 deaths English writers 20th-century English translators English communists People from Cambridge