Frida Knight (1910–1996) was an English

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

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 T ...

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

George Derwent Thomson George Derwent Thomson ( ga, Seoirse Mac Tomáis; 1903 in Dulwich, London – 3 February 1987 in Birmingham) was an English classical scholar, Marxist philosopher, and scholar of the Irish language. Classical scholar Thomson studied Class ...

, 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 is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

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

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

on a British Drama League trip. Stewart then joined the

Left Book Club The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948. Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acqui ...

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 CPG ...

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

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. 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 german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the 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 Switzerl ...

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

Free French Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...

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. Spanish Civil War 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 (; commonly referred to as I. L. 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) was a Romanian playw ...

(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 English translators English communists People from Cambridge 20th-century British translators