Charles Henry Hobday (9 September 1917 – 2 March 2005) was an English poet. He was a member of the

Communist Party Historians Group A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the Communist Party Historians Group (CPHG) formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who contributed to "history from below" from 1946 to 1956. Famous members ...

as well as an editor of the 1940s communist cultural magazine ''Our Time''.

Life

Hobday was born in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

in 1917. His father was a soldier, and died six months before he was born. After attending the local grammar school, Hobday received a scholarship to the

Queen Mary University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

, where he took a first-class degree in history and English. During his studies he became aware of the immense poverty in the city, and joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

in 1938. Hobday spent the Second World War obtaining a master's degree in Cambridge, and did not serve in the military on medical grounds. At this point, his first poems were published in ''Our Time'', a communist literary journal. The journal was edited by

Edgell Rickword John Edgell Rickword, MC (22 October 1898 – 15 March 1982) was an English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor. He became one of the leading communist intellectuals active in the 1930s. Early life He was born in Colchester, Essex, ...

, who Hobday would later go on to write a biography about in 1989. After Our Time folded in 1949, Hobday moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

to work for Keesing's Contemporary Archive. In 1950, he married Inez Gwendolen Beeching. Over the course of the next decade, he became involved in a campaign to democratise the Communist Party, but left in 1957 after the

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

. From the 1960s onward Hobday became more engaged in writing poetry, and less involved in the communist politics of his youth. In January 1973, Inez Gwendolen Beeching died. Hobday married Helen Strauss, his second and last wife, in 1983. In retirement Hobday wrote many of his most remembered works, including the biography ''Edgell Rickword'' (1989); a survey of English poets in Florence, ''A golden ring'' (1997); and ''Elegy for a sergeant'' (2002), a poem in memory of his uncle who died in the First World War. In 1979, Hobday published the classic essay, "Clouted Soon and Leather Aprons: Shakespear and the Egalitarian Tradition." While he left the communist party in the 1950s, Hobday remained a socialist and became a member of the Labour Party. However, after the Labour party supported the

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Ba'athist Iraq, Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one mont ...

, Hobday left this party too. Charles Hobday died in 2005, aged 87.

Works

*''The return of Cain'' (1974) * ''Titterstone Clee: A poem'' (1975) * ''A Wreath for Inez'' (1976) * "Clouted Shoon and Leather Aprons: Shakespeare and the Egalitarian Tradition," Renaissance and Modern Studies 23 (1979): 63-78. * ''Communist and Marxist parties of the World'' (1986) * ''Edgell Rickword'' (1989) * ''A golden ring'' (1997) * ''How Goes the Enemy'' (2000) * ''Elegy for a sergeant'' (2002)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobday, Charles 1917 births 2005 deaths Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Communist Party of Great Britain members Labour Party (UK) people Communist Party Historians Group members