Randall Carline Swingler MM (28 May 1909 – 19 June 1967) was an English poet, writing extensively in the 1930s in the

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 ...

interest.

Early life and education

His was a prosperous upper middle class

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

family in

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

, with an industrial background in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

and earlier aristocratic roots in Scotland. His uncle and godfather was

Randall Davidson Randall Thomas Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth, (7 April 1848 – 25 May 1930) was an Anglican priest who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928. He was the longest-serving holder of the office since the English Reformation, Re ...

, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1903 – 1928) and he was the cousin of the writer

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

, and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

. He served with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. His egalitarian beliefs led him to refuse a commission and he joined as a private soldier, repeatedly refusing offers of a battlefield commission. He saw action in the Italian campaign and was awarded the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...

. He left the CPGB in 1956. He was a founder of E. P. Thompson's ''

The New Reasoner ''The New Reasoner'' was a British journal of dissident Communism published from 1957 to 1959 by John Saville and E.P. Thompson. The publication is best remembered as an antecedent of the long running journal ''New Left Review.'' ''The Reasone ...

'' (from 1957).Croft, Andy. ''Comrade Heart: A Life of Randall Swingler'' (2003), revised 2020 a
''The Years of Anger''
/ref>

Music and literature

Swingler was an accomplished

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, playing regularly with the professional

London orchestras London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

. He was later much involved in musical collaboration as a librettist, including song cycles with

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

('' Advance Democracy'', 1938),

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 pro ...

(''The Winter Journey'', 1946) and

Alan Rawsthorne Alan Rawsthorne (2 May 1905 – 24 July 1971) was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex. Early years Alan Rawsthorne was born in Deardengate House, Haslingden, Lancashire, to Hu ...

(''A Canticle of Man'', 1953). His friend

John Sykes John James Sykes (born 29 July 1959) is an English guitarist, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He has also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums. Following a stint in ...

also set the four poems of ''Homage to John Dowland'' in 1957. Among several notable pieces, Swingler co-wrote ''Ballad of Heroes'' with Britten and the poet

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

and wrote a new version of the English lyrics of the Polish revolutionary song "

Whirlwinds of Danger Whirlwinds of Danger (original Polish title: Warszawianka) is a Polish socialist revolutionary song written some time between 1879 and 1883. The Polish title, a deliberate reference to the earlier song by the same title, could be translated as ...

". There are settings of his verse by

Arnold Cooke Arnold Atkinson Cooke (4 November 1906 – 13 August 2005) was a British composer.Biography by Eric Wetherell, British Music Society/ref> Education Cooke was born at Gomersal, West Yorkshire, into a family of carpet manufacturers. As a child, ...

Christian Darnton Philip Christian Darnton (30 October 1905 – 14 April 1981), also known as Baron von Schunck, was a British composer and writer. Early life and family He was born in Leeds as Philip Christian von Schunck, the son of Mary Gertrude Illingworth (187 ...

Erik Chisholm Erik William Chisholm (4 January 1904 – 8 June 1965) was a Scottish composer, pianist, organist and conductor sometimes known as "Scotland's forgotten composer". According to his biographer, Chisholm "was the first composer to absorb Celtic i ...

Norman Demuth Norman Demuth (15 July 1898 – 21 April 1968) was an English composer and musicologist, currently remembered largely for his biographies of French composers. Biography Early life Demuth was born in Croydon, Surrey, at 91 St James' Road. On lea ...

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

Elisabeth Lutyens Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (9 July 190614 April 1983) was an English composer. Early life and education Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 9 July 1906. She was one of the five children of Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964), a me ...

, and

Bernard Stevens Bernard (George) Stevens (2 March 1916 – 6 January 1983) was a British composer. Life Born in London, Stevens studied English and Music at St John's College, Cambridge with E. J. Dent and Cyril Rootham, then at the Royal College of Music ...

. His war poetry (1935-1945), including examples such as 'Heavy Shelling at Night', 'Briefing for Invasion' and 'The Day the War Ended...' was collected in ''The Years of Anger'', first published in 1946. Since his death, Swingler has been recognised as a central figure in communist English poetry. His biographer, the poet

Andy Croft Andy Croft (born 1956) is an English writer, editor, and poet based in North East England."About the Contributors", in Edward J. Carvalho (ed.), ''Acknowledged Legislator: Critical Essays on the Poetry of Martín Espada''. Rowman & Littlefiel ...

, has written that, as an editor, speaker, organiser, journalist, critic, playwright, poet, librettist, novelist and publisher, he was one of the leading figures in the cultural activities of the Communist Party. Croft has also calls him "the last of the Georgian poets" and says that his poetry "had a moral and political urgency". Swingler operated in North London, as a close associate of

Nancy Cunard Nancy Clara Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a British writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class, and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the ...

, sometimes lending his name. He was one of the organisers of the covert Writer's Group of the late 1930s, attempting to co-ordinate a 'literary policy' of the Left. He was also involved in work for the Unity Theatre, and was the literary editor of the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'', often reviewing books for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', ''

The Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', amongst other newspapers.Jacobs, Nicholas. 'Young, gifted, broke, but now recalled', ''Islington Times'', 22 October, 2020
/ref>

Politics

Swingler joined the

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 ...

in 1934. His numerous ventures as a literary entrepreneur included the setting up of Fore Publications (1938), editing the magazines ''Left Review'' (from 1937 to 1938), ''Arena'', ''Seven'' (taken over in wartime, mainly for the paper stock), ''Our Time'', and the publishing of the ''Key Books'', and later ''Key Poets'' series. These proved more influential than his

Blake Blake is a surname which originated from Old English. Its derivation is uncertain; it could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin, or from "blaac", a nickname for someone with pale hair or skin. Another theory, presuma ...

-flavoured verse, which has consistently been criticised (and scarcely defended, except by Andy Croft). With his brother, the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP Stephen Swingler, he was involved in Barnett Stross's Lidice Shall Live campaign, and wrote the words to the piece "A Rose For Lidice" (music by

), which was performed at the opening of the memorial rose garden in

Lidice Lidice (, german: Liditz) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village of the same name, which was co ...

in 1955.

Personal life

He was married to the concert pianist and tutor at the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

, Geraldine Peppin. They had an open marriage and Swingler had an affair with actor and activist Ann Davies. Swingler died unexpectedly on 19 Jun 1967 at Charing Cross Hospital. Westminster. His daughter Judith married the composer Edward Williams.

Works

*''Crucifixus'' (1932) play *''Difficult Morning'' (1933) poems *''The Left Song Book'', (1938) compiled with

*''The Years of Anger'' – poems *''The God in the Cave'' (1950) poems *''Selected Poems of Randall Swingler'' (2000) edited by Andy Croft

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swingler, Randall 1909 births 1967 deaths People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford English communists English people of Scottish descent British Army soldiers British Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Military Medal 20th-century British poets Military personnel from Aldershot