Ronald Tudor Symond MC was born in Liverpool, England in December 1895, the second son of a solicitor Elwy Davies Symond, and died at the age of 51 of a heart attack in London in February 1947. He is notable for his membership of the avant-garde, modernist, literary and artistic circles of the Left Bank of Paris in the 1930s.

Early life

Symond spent his youth in

Sefton Park Sefton Park is a public park in south Liverpool, England. The park is in a district of the same name, located roughly within the historic bounds of the large area of Toxteth Park. Neighbouring districts include modern-day Toxteth, Aigburth, ...

, Liverpool, and attended Liverpool College, where he was captain of the First Eleven cricket team in July 1913. "Has made a popular and energetic captain. A really good bat, with splendid style, and plenty of scoring strokes. Has bowled well on occasions, and is a brilliant fielder in any position. Should lead the College to great victories next season" This laid the foundation for a lifelong interest in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Military record

At the age of 19, in 1915, Symond enlisted and served in the Infantry for three years in Northern France, on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

, during World War I. He attained the rank of Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion of the

Liverpool Regiment The King's Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 and numbered as the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot in 1751. Unlike most British Army infantry regiments, which were ...

, and was awarded the Military Cross in April 1918. :::"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led a bombing attack with the utmost determination, and after a fight lasting for four hours, ejected the enemy from the trenches. He showed great courage and determination." At that time 'a bombing attack' meant an attack using

hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s. He was then transferred to the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

, which became the Royal Air Force in August 1918, and undertook training in England, returning to France as the war was ending. He resigned his commission in 1921. Symond's elder brother Stuart was seconded to the Machine Gun Corps and his younger brother John to the Tank Corps. Both brothers survived the war but John was wounded after one week at the front and served in Britain until 1921. On 26 February 1940 Ronald Symond enlisted again (in World War II). He was transferred to the Intelligence Corps on 15 July 1940 and attained the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He served until 1945. The Intelligence Corps was formally reconstructed in July 1940, having been disbanded after World War I.

Literary critic and translator

Ronald Symond resided in both France and England between 1919 and 1939, becoming

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

, and was a minor figure among the expatriate writers living in Paris in that period. He was therefore a member of the Lost Generation. He was active in literary criticism and published in the Parisian literary journal ' transition', which was edited by Eugene Jolas, who regarded Symond as one of his friends, together with

Stuart Gilbert Arthur Stuart Ahluwalia Stronge Gilbert (25 October 1883 – 5 January 1969) was an English literary scholar and translator. Among his translations into English are works by Alexis de Tocqueville, Édouard Dujardin, André Malraux, Antoine d ...

. The three of them organised an 'International Workshop on Orphic Creation' in 1932. In March 1932 Symond published his translation of ''Mr. James Joyce et son nouveau Roman 'Work in Progress, by Louis Gillet. Later, in 1935, Gillet became a member of the Académie française, occupying 'Seat 13' out of the 40 seats. Symond wrote a literary critique on ''Work in Progress'' by James Joyce, while it was being published in ''transition'', and before it was published in its final form as '' Finnegans Wake''. In April 1934 he published a critical review, ''The Third Mr. Joyce; Comments on 'Work in Progress. He was a signatory, together with Eugene Jolas, to a manifesto of expatriate writers living in Paris in the 1930s, entitled ''Poetry is Vertical''.

Non-fiction books

Ronald Symond wrote two books of non-fiction, during the inter-war years: #He published ''The Main Chance'' in 1926, a work of religion and philosophy, classified under 'Altruism, Life, Lov

#He published ''Homage to Cricket'' in 193

This was written under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Gryllus, a Latin word for the 'cricket' insect, a kind of grasshopper, as a clearly intended pun.

Sports journalism

Before and after World War II, until his death in 1947, Symond worked as a sports correspondent for '' The Daily Mail'', covering

and rugby matches. He reported at least one cricket Test match in which the Australian

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...

played, meeting Bradman in 1938, when he came to the Press Box. Symond's coverage of The Ashes in 1938 was syndicated in numerous newspapers in Australia. He died of a heart attack at the age of 51.

Sources

* Deming, Robert H., 1964, ''A Bibliography of James Joyce Studies'', University of Kansas Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Symond, Ronald 1895 births 1947 deaths British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War II English expatriates in France Cricket historians and writers Daily Mail journalists English male journalists 20th-century English male writers Intelligence Corps officers James Joyce scholars Journalists from Liverpool King's Regiment (Liverpool) officers Literary critics of English Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Flying Corps officers People educated at Liverpool College British sports journalists