Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Del Carr
TitleCommunist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Del Carr
ReferenceTAPE/626
Date
2/8/2000
Scope and ContentThis is a copy of a tape held by the British Library, in their Sound Archives, as part of their CPGB Biographical Project.
Details about the tape may be obtained from the British Library web site.
Del was born on 16th April 1922 (as Griselda Rowntree)
Her parents were Quakers, living in and near Scarborough. Her father was a Conscientious Objector in the First World War, and was in the ILP and stood as the Labour Party candidate, Del used to read his Left Book Club books. Del’s mother probably met her father through the Quakers. She came from Bradford, from an artistic family. Del had three elder brothers, two of whom fought in WW2, with her third brother being a Conscientious Objector.
Del’s family background helped to drive her towards the Left. She went to the local selective girls’ grammar school. The other girls tended to be very conventional, but some of the teaching was quite good. Their geography teacher told them about the League of Nations. Del’s first memory at 13 was the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.
Del went to Oxford in the autumn of 1940 (Battle of Britain time), probably not a good time to go and take a subject like PPE. Most of the dons had gone into war service, and they were taught by an odd collection of tutors. Del took her degree in 1943 and ended up with a 2.2.
One of her closest friends in Oxford was a refugee from Germany who knew much more about life than the others, so she was an interesting friend to have. Del started to read about Marxism while she was at Oxford, In 1940 she joined the Oxford University Labour Club. Del felt it was a natural progression to join the Communist Party, although she did have some doubts, and at some point thought of leaving, but was talked into staying.. She went to day-schools and group meetings and so on.She remembered the day when Germany invaded the Soviet Union
Del then returned to Scarborough for a while after graduating.
In April 1944 Del began her 25-year career in social research. From about 1943 people began to think about the reconstruction and redevelopment that would be needed after the war, and the surveys which would be needed.
Del worked first in London, looking at education, and then moved to Middlesbrough where she did research into social patterns there. She then went back to London to do similar work on Bethnal Green. There had been a lot of bombing there and reconstruction would be needed on a large scale. Del worked on health services as well as schools etc. After that she went to work at the Population Investigation Committee at the LSE. They had just embarked on a longitudinal survey of all the births in England taking place in one week in 1946.
Del maintained her membership of the Party. She was never very active, although she attended branch meetings in West Hampstead.
She was delighted to have a Labour Government in 1945. They all really thought that reconstruction was a step towards Socialism, although her work did not have an impact on the NHS, being more about research.
After the War there was so much devastation in the USSR, their feelings were mostly of sympathy and hopes that they would revive and be able to go forward, rather than taking the USSR as a model for their own work. When Del first went to London she stayed with the mother of her refugee college friend, and she remembered the horror of them all at the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In 1950 Del was working in Aberdeen, on an enormous survey on the effect of poverty and malnutrition on maternity. She undertook a small survey about family finances before and after the child came. She also got to know a bit about Scotland, and the fishing industry.
Del left Aberdeen and returned to London, where the longitudinal study of births of babies conceived on VJ night, or whatever was still going on. Del wrote a couple of papers for them. Then they studied the practice of contraception and Del helped write two of the first papers on the national incidence of contraception before the Pill.
During that time Del was teaching Social History for the London University Extra-Mural – just one class a week.
Wherever she had lived Del kept up her membership of the Communist Party. She did think about Hungary quite a lot, but the Party was good at putting over the line that the people there who opposed the Soviet occupation were very reactionary and not representative of the real people of Hungary. Several of the intellectual members of the Party, such as Edward Thompson, left the Party at that time. She, and others, began to realise that revolution was not likely to happen, but they hoped there might be a transition to socialism via the parliamentary route.
Del went back to Yorkshire in 1962 to be nearer to her father and she began to take a more active role in the peace movement. She went to Leeds University as a lecturer in the Department of Social Studies and did partly social history teaching, and partly a course on dealing with aspects of family life. She rented a flat in Leeds and got a car and made links with Leeds Communist Party. They had a peace group in the university, and that was where she met her husband Bill.
He was still a working miner but also worked for the union so did not go down in the pit every day. He was often on inspections, committees and things like that. His pit had been at Thorne, on the other side of Doncaster. Del moved there and commuted. She tried to carry on her work at Leeds but it involved a thirty-mile car ride each way, and was not happy with the atmosphere at Leeds University, so she gave it up after a few months. She did carry out a short-term (six months) and part-time study for the Medical Officer for Health in North Lincolnshire.
After that she remained in the village and enjoyed the. total contrast of the fairly rural companionable and intellectually-undemanding life of a pit village. Thorne itself was no longer a pit village. Thorne Pit was opened in 1926 and closed in 1956, because of water problems, several years before Del went there. Del and Bill lived in Moorends which was built as a pit village, and where the miners mainly lived although they worked at other pits.
Bill and Sam Cairns were both local councillors for Moorends and, were the two most prominent characters in the Party branch. A few younger men also attended the branch meetings. Del felt very much on the sidelines.
In the early seventies Bill became ill and had to give up his Party work and his work on the Council.. In 1973-4 there was great exhilaration about the miners’ strike and the defeat of Heath. Del helped in the 1984-5 strike.
She wrote a book about Pit Women (in the WCML Collection). There was a very strong male tradition in the mining communities which it was very difficult to break down, although the women were very strong in spite of that.
She left soon after the end of the 1984-5 strike and went to live in Sheffield. Del continued with the Democratic Left for some time and joined the Green Socialist Network and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, but became disillusioned with the Democratic Left and with the Green Socialist Network. She felt isolated from the wider world around her, as regards political alternatives or events that were going on.
There is a Word document which gives a more detailed synopsis of the interview.
There is also a pdf document which gives a more detailed synopsis. This can be viewed at the WCML
Details about the tape may be obtained from the British Library web site.
Del was born on 16th April 1922 (as Griselda Rowntree)
Her parents were Quakers, living in and near Scarborough. Her father was a Conscientious Objector in the First World War, and was in the ILP and stood as the Labour Party candidate, Del used to read his Left Book Club books. Del’s mother probably met her father through the Quakers. She came from Bradford, from an artistic family. Del had three elder brothers, two of whom fought in WW2, with her third brother being a Conscientious Objector.
Del’s family background helped to drive her towards the Left. She went to the local selective girls’ grammar school. The other girls tended to be very conventional, but some of the teaching was quite good. Their geography teacher told them about the League of Nations. Del’s first memory at 13 was the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.
Del went to Oxford in the autumn of 1940 (Battle of Britain time), probably not a good time to go and take a subject like PPE. Most of the dons had gone into war service, and they were taught by an odd collection of tutors. Del took her degree in 1943 and ended up with a 2.2.
One of her closest friends in Oxford was a refugee from Germany who knew much more about life than the others, so she was an interesting friend to have. Del started to read about Marxism while she was at Oxford, In 1940 she joined the Oxford University Labour Club. Del felt it was a natural progression to join the Communist Party, although she did have some doubts, and at some point thought of leaving, but was talked into staying.. She went to day-schools and group meetings and so on.She remembered the day when Germany invaded the Soviet Union
Del then returned to Scarborough for a while after graduating.
In April 1944 Del began her 25-year career in social research. From about 1943 people began to think about the reconstruction and redevelopment that would be needed after the war, and the surveys which would be needed.
Del worked first in London, looking at education, and then moved to Middlesbrough where she did research into social patterns there. She then went back to London to do similar work on Bethnal Green. There had been a lot of bombing there and reconstruction would be needed on a large scale. Del worked on health services as well as schools etc. After that she went to work at the Population Investigation Committee at the LSE. They had just embarked on a longitudinal survey of all the births in England taking place in one week in 1946.
Del maintained her membership of the Party. She was never very active, although she attended branch meetings in West Hampstead.
She was delighted to have a Labour Government in 1945. They all really thought that reconstruction was a step towards Socialism, although her work did not have an impact on the NHS, being more about research.
After the War there was so much devastation in the USSR, their feelings were mostly of sympathy and hopes that they would revive and be able to go forward, rather than taking the USSR as a model for their own work. When Del first went to London she stayed with the mother of her refugee college friend, and she remembered the horror of them all at the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In 1950 Del was working in Aberdeen, on an enormous survey on the effect of poverty and malnutrition on maternity. She undertook a small survey about family finances before and after the child came. She also got to know a bit about Scotland, and the fishing industry.
Del left Aberdeen and returned to London, where the longitudinal study of births of babies conceived on VJ night, or whatever was still going on. Del wrote a couple of papers for them. Then they studied the practice of contraception and Del helped write two of the first papers on the national incidence of contraception before the Pill.
During that time Del was teaching Social History for the London University Extra-Mural – just one class a week.
Wherever she had lived Del kept up her membership of the Communist Party. She did think about Hungary quite a lot, but the Party was good at putting over the line that the people there who opposed the Soviet occupation were very reactionary and not representative of the real people of Hungary. Several of the intellectual members of the Party, such as Edward Thompson, left the Party at that time. She, and others, began to realise that revolution was not likely to happen, but they hoped there might be a transition to socialism via the parliamentary route.
Del went back to Yorkshire in 1962 to be nearer to her father and she began to take a more active role in the peace movement. She went to Leeds University as a lecturer in the Department of Social Studies and did partly social history teaching, and partly a course on dealing with aspects of family life. She rented a flat in Leeds and got a car and made links with Leeds Communist Party. They had a peace group in the university, and that was where she met her husband Bill.
He was still a working miner but also worked for the union so did not go down in the pit every day. He was often on inspections, committees and things like that. His pit had been at Thorne, on the other side of Doncaster. Del moved there and commuted. She tried to carry on her work at Leeds but it involved a thirty-mile car ride each way, and was not happy with the atmosphere at Leeds University, so she gave it up after a few months. She did carry out a short-term (six months) and part-time study for the Medical Officer for Health in North Lincolnshire.
After that she remained in the village and enjoyed the. total contrast of the fairly rural companionable and intellectually-undemanding life of a pit village. Thorne itself was no longer a pit village. Thorne Pit was opened in 1926 and closed in 1956, because of water problems, several years before Del went there. Del and Bill lived in Moorends which was built as a pit village, and where the miners mainly lived although they worked at other pits.
Bill and Sam Cairns were both local councillors for Moorends and, were the two most prominent characters in the Party branch. A few younger men also attended the branch meetings. Del felt very much on the sidelines.
In the early seventies Bill became ill and had to give up his Party work and his work on the Council.. In 1973-4 there was great exhilaration about the miners’ strike and the defeat of Heath. Del helped in the 1984-5 strike.
She wrote a book about Pit Women (in the WCML Collection). There was a very strong male tradition in the mining communities which it was very difficult to break down, although the women were very strong in spite of that.
She left soon after the end of the 1984-5 strike and went to live in Sheffield. Del continued with the Democratic Left for some time and joined the Green Socialist Network and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, but became disillusioned with the Democratic Left and with the Green Socialist Network. She felt isolated from the wider world around her, as regards political alternatives or events that were going on.
There is a Word document which gives a more detailed synopsis of the interview.
There is also a pdf document which gives a more detailed synopsis. This can be viewed at the WCML
Extent3 Cassette tapes
Physical descriptionNWA copy
LanguageEnglish
Archival historyThe Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project, part-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council covers the full period of the party's existence (1920-1991) and deals with all aspects of its work including industrial work, educational and cultural activities as well as local and international campaigns. The audio recordings of more than 150 interviews with members and former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, conducted between October 1999 and September 2001 by a group of historians based at Manchester University have now been deposited in the British Library Sound Archive.
Conditions governing accessOpen
Levelfile
Normal locationZ (Room 24)