Paul Cedar

Cedar Paul

 

Cedar Paul was born Gertrude Mary Davenport, the daughter of the composer Francis William Davenport (1847-1925). She was also the grand-daughter of the composer George Alexander Macfarren. Educated at convent schools in Belgium, France, Italy and England, she studied music in Germany becoming an accomplished singer

 

She was a member of the Independent Labour Party from 1912 to 1919, and Secretary of the British Section of the Women's International Council of Socialist and Labour Organizations from 1917 to 1919. Like her husband, Eden Paul (see separate entry) she became a member of the British Communist Party on its foundation after having become increasingly close to the British Socialist Party and other formations after the Russian revolution. In 1919, she was the musical director for Hands off Russia’s mass solidarity rallies, in the east end of London, which had musical entertainment sessions.

 

Together with Eden, she wrote several books and translations from German (including works by Karl Marx, Rudolf Hilferding, Emil Ludwig, Karl Jaspers, Stefan Zweig, Robert Michels, and Heinrich von Treitschke) and Russian (including Mikhail Lermontov's `A Hero of Our Time’).

 

She died on 18 March 1972.