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Eddie Frow was born on June
6th, 1906, the son of a tenant farmer of 18 acres, in the village
of Harrington in Lincolnshire.He left school aged 14 and after
a year at trade school commenced his working life, as an apprentice
in the drawing office of an engineering firm. Later he became
a toolmaker. In 1924, aged 17 he joined the Communist Party,
remaining a member until the day he died.
He was 20 when he joined the
General Strike in 1926. The engineers union had not been called
out. It was a move of personal solidarity for which he lost his
job. Eddie reckoned that over the following 20 years he lost
20 out of 21 jobs because of his union activity. Always a shop
steward or convener, he served for 20 years on the National Committee
of the AEU, standing down in 1961 when he was elected as the
full time Secretary for the Manchester District. He was 23 when
the stock market crash of 1929 destroyed the economy, and 27
before he worked again.
During those years he was
an active member of the National Unemployed Worker's Movement,
and chairman of the Salford branch. The scar on his nose was
given to him by the police, in a temporary cell in Salford Town
Hall. Eddie was one of the leaders of a march to the Town Hall.
The police wouldn't let a deputation through to meet the council.
They broke up the march and arrested the leaders. Eddie got a
beating. They also gave him five months in prison. The scar stayed
for life. Walter Greenwood, a council worker at the time, wrote
the novel - Love On The Dole- (1933) in which the "Battle
of Bexley Square" is a climactic event. The character based
on Eddie is described in the novel as "a finely featured
young man ... heaping invective upon all with whom he disassociated
himself on the social scale".
Eddie was 47 when he met Ruth
and began a relationship which lasted for over 40 years and produced
among other virtues the WCML. Eddie died on May 15th 1997, less
than a month short of his 91 st birthday. Of live and enquiring
mind until the day of his demise, his lifelong commitment to
the causes of human emancipation has a fine memorial in the continued
development of the library he and Ruth founded.
Ruth left school in 1939 and
spent the next four and a half years in theWomens' Auxiliary
Air Force. She joined the Communist Party in 1945 in Sandwich,
Kent, where she and her husband Denis Haines had been canvassing
for the Labour Party in the 1945 election. Local miners advised
them to join the CP in preference to the Labour Party. Ruth has
since served in many positions of responsibility within the Party.
When Ruth returned to London
after the war she became involved in the peace movement, serving
as a member of the National Council of the British Peace Committee.
She was Secretary of Manchester Peace Committee when Manchester
C.N.D. was formed, and was elected as their first Vice-Chairman.
After the war Ruth took an
Emergency Training Scheme to become a teacher and became involved
in union activity as a member of the National Union of Teachers.
She represented Manchester Teachers' Association on Manchester
and Salford Trades Council. She was President of Altrincham N.U.T.
at the time when they went on strike for a day in the early 70's.
She took early retirement in 1980. At the time she was the Deputy
Head of one of Manchester's largest comprehensives.
Eddie and Ruth first met in
1953 at a Communist Party dayschool on labour history. They both
shared a love of labour movement books and documents and realised
how much they had in common. A couple of years later they started
living together, and were married in 1961.
By the late 1960's they had
built up an enviable collection of works in their home at 111
Kings Road, Stretford. Room after room was filling up with books
and their home became known as the Working Class Movement Library.
Donations of personal collections were added to the library by
labour activists far and wide.
By the 1980's their house
was at bursting point and so the City of Salford Council agreed
to house the magnificent library in an old Victorian building
called Jubilee House on Salford Crescent. The collection has
been here ever since.
Over the last 30 years Eddie
and Ruth have written countless articles and essays on aspects
of the labour movement. When asked how they managed to write
joint book reviews they replied that Eddie did the reading and
Ruth the writing!
For further information about
The
Working Class Movement Library
Tel: 0161 736 3601 or email:
enquires@wcml.org.uk |
