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Quaintance Bill
Bill Quaintance William Stanley Quaintance was born on 15th June 1904 in Gittisham Devon and joined the Royal Medical Corp on the 2nd August 1923, aged 19 as a medical orderly. He married Winifred […]
Month: April 2010
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Nickolai Lawrie
Lawrie Nickolay (Phil Nickolay, Lawrie’s brother is also covered here; see separate entry for Alys Nickolai, Lawrie’s wife.) Lawrie Nickolay was born in Islington on August 10th 1915; his brother Phil, also to become a […]
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Openshaw Charlie
Charlie Openshaw Openshaw was a close friend of the young Harry Pollitt. An engineering worker and literature secretary for the Openshaw Socialist Society, which was established in 1906, Openshaw was a founding member of […]
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Oliver Daphne
Daphne Oliver A long-standing member of staff and former pupil at Leiston and Summerhill School, Daphne Lilian Oliver was not known there by either of her given names but by almost everyone as `Olly’. The […]
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Bass Alfie
Alfie Bass The well known actor, Alfie Bass, was born Abraham Basalinksy in 1916 in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest of a large Jewish family. His parents had fled persecution in Russia and would have welcomed the […]
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Rice Ernie
Ernie Rice Rice was born in the 1920s. Later being married with a family, he was a Londondocker at Royal Docks. Rice was described by some as Jack Dash’s right hand man, not only […]
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Jane “Mrs and Mr”
Mrs Jane and Mr Jane The husband and wife team were Communist Party members in Blackburn, Lancashirein the 1930s. In 1932, they stood as Communist candidates in the November council elections. Mrs Jane contested Trinity […]
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Robinson Derek
Derek Robinson Born in 1927, Robinson joined the AEU as an apprentice at the Longbridge car plant in Northfield on the outskirts of Birmingham when he started work there during the height of the […]
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Jackson Frank (b1887, builder & CP librarian)
Frank Jackson Frank Jackson was a life-long member of the Communist Party and a building trades activist. He was born in 1887 in Walthamstow but grew up in Coventry, where the whole family had […]
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Douglas J J
J J Douglas Douglas was the Communist Party’s candidate for Morpeth, Northumberland, in November 1932. He was the only candidate in his election address to mention the then new “Means Test” unemployment Benefit. Yet some 600 […]