David Guest (6 January 1911– 28 July 1938) was a British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and philosopher who volunteered to fight for the Republicans in 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 ...

and was killed in Spain in 1938. He was the uncle of American-British musician, actor and director

Christopher Guest Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born February 5, 1948) is an American-British screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor, and comedian. Guest is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed, and starred in ...

Biography

Guest was the son of Leslie Haden-Guest (created 1st

Baron Haden-Guest Baron Haden-Guest, of Saling in the County of Essex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 2 February 1950 for the Labour Party politician Leslie Haden-Guest. He had previously represented Southwark North and I ...

in 1950), a longtime Labour Party Member of Parliament and Muriel Ethel Carmel Goldsmid, daughter of

Albert Goldsmid Colonel Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid (6 October 1846 – 27 March 1904) was a British officer. He was the founder of the Jewish Lads' Brigade (in 1895) and the Maccabaeans. Biography Albert Goldsmid was born in Poona, British India, the s ...

(a pioneering Zionist as head of

Hovevei Zion Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. ''hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian ...

in Great Britain and Ireland) from the

Goldsmid family Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid (died 1782), a Dutch merchant who settled in England around 1763. Two of his sons, Benjamin Goldsmid (c. 1753-1808) and Abraham Goldsmid (c. 1756-1810), began ...

of merchant bankers. He entered

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, in 1929 and studied from 1930 to 1931 in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

in Germany, where he was sentenced to two weeks in prison for anti-

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

political activity. On his return he 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 ...

at Cambridge in 1931. There Guest became the head of a party cell that included

John Cornford Rupert John Cornford (27 December 1915 – 28 December 1936) was an English poet and communist. During the first year of the Spanish Civil War, he was a member of the POUM militia and later the International Brigades. He died while fighting a ...

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...

, Donald Maclean,

Victor Kiernan Edward Victor Gordon Kiernan (4 September 1913 – 17 February 2009) was a British historian and a member of the Communist Party Historians Group. Kiernan's work was prominent in the field of Marxist historiography in Britain, analyzing his ...

and

James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Backgroun ...

. This enabled dons such as

Maurice Dobb Maurice Herbert Dobb (24 July 1900 – 17 August 1976) was an English economist at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the pre-eminent Marxist economists of the 20th century. Dobb was bo ...

and John Bernal to take a back-seat. It was claimed that David Guest would "stride into hall at Trinity wearing a hammer and sickle pin in his lapel." In 1933, after leaving Cambridge Guest moved to Battersea, South London, where he lectured in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and worked for the Communist party at the ''Peoples' Bookshop'' in

Lavender Hill The A3036 is an A roads in Great Britain, A road in London, England, running from Waterloo, London, Waterloo to Wandsworth. Route It starts at the southern tip of the County Hall roundabout where the A302 road, A302 Westminster Bridge, York ...

. He soon became active in Battersea

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of YC ...

. While working at the bookshop he joined the shop workers union. In May 1935, he organised a Youth Peace Parade of fifty young people, some dressed as nurses, others with gas masks and with stretchers, to warn of war. For a short period of time he taught at a secondary school for English-speaking children in Moscow, but returned to England to lecture at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. In 1938 he left his post as a lecturer at University College to volunteer for the

International Brigades The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...

fighting in Spain. He wrote of his decision: :''Today we have certainly entered a period of crisis, when the arguments of 'normal times' no longer apply, when considerations of most immediate usefulness come in. That is why I have decided to take the opportunity of going to Spain.'' Guest arrived in Spain on 31 March 1938 and joined the

British Battalion The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War. It comprised British and ...

of the International Brigades. The Battalion went into action at the

Battle of the Ebro The Battle of the Ebro ( es, Batalla del Ebro, ca, Batalla de l'Ebre) was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War and the greatest, in terms of manpower, logistics and material ever fought on Spanish soil. It took place between Ju ...

which began on 25 July 1938. Three days later, on 28 July, Guest was killed on Hill 481 at

Gandesa Gandesa () is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Terra Alta, in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. History In the place known as ''Coll del Moro'' there is an ancient Iberian archaeological site belonging to the Ilercavones tribe that l ...

by a sniper as he read a newspaper. After his death, notes he had made while lecturing at the Marx Memorial Workers' School were published as ''A Text Book of

Dialectical Materialism Dialectical materialism is a philosophy of science, history, and nature developed in Europe and based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist dialectics, as a materialist philosophy, emphasizes the importance of real-world con ...

'' in 1939.

Publications

*Guest, David, (1939) ''A Text Book of Dialectical Materialism'', Lawrence And Wishart (republished as ''Lectures on Marxist Philosophy'' (1963))

Biography

Publications

References

External links

Further reading