Ronald Tudor Symond MC was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, 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 Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, literary and artistic circles of the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terra ...

of Paris in the 1930s.

Early life

Symond spent his youth in Sefton Park, Liverpool, and attended

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' Conference (HMC). History Liverpool College was the first of many public schools founded in the Victorian ...

, 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 str ...

Military record

At the age of 19, in 1915, Symond enlisted and served in the

Infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

for three years in Northern France, on the Western Front, during World War I. He attained the rank of Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion of the Liverpool Regiment, and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

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 grenades. He was then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, which became the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

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 The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks ...

and his younger brother John to the

Tank Corps An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armo ...

. 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. 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, and was a minor figure among the

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

writers living in Paris in that period. He was therefore a member of the

Lost Generation The Lost Generation was the social generational cohort in the Western world that was in early adulthood during World War I. "Lost" in this context refers to the "disoriented, wandering, directionless" spirit of many of the war's survivors in th ...

. He was active in literary criticism and published in the Parisian literary journal ' transition', which was edited by

Eugene Jolas John George Eugène Jolas (October 26, 1894 – May 26, 1952) was a writer, translator and literary critic. Early life John George Eugène Jolas was born October 26, 1894, in Union Hill, New Jersey (what is today Union City, New Jersey). His p ...

, who regarded Symond as one of his friends, together with Stuart Gilbert. 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 Louis-Marie-Pierre-Dominique Gillet (11 December 1876 – 1 July 1943) was a French art historian and literary historian. Life Louis Gillet was born in Paris on 11 December 1876. He studied at the Collège Stanislas de Paris and the École nor ...

. 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 James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

, while it was being published in ''transition'', and before it was published in its final form as ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

''. 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 of

Gryllus ''Gryllus'' is a genus of field cricket (Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Gryllinae). Members of the genus are typically 15–31 mm long and darkly coloured. The type species is ''Gryllus campestris'' L.: the European field cricket. Until the mid- ...

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

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

Sports journalism

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

The Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publishe ...

'', covering

and

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

matches. He reported at least one cricket Test match in which the Australian Don Bradman played, meeting Bradman in 1938, when he came to the Press Box. Symond's coverage of

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

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