Ruth Frow

Many Trafford residents will know about, and indeed may have visited, the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, but perhaps not too many will know that it started life in Trafford - 111 Kings Road, Old Trafford.

Eddie and Ruth Frow built the library over many years of collecting books, pamphlets, photographs, periodicals and memorabilia. Their Old Trafford home became a library to which the public was welcomed, but by 1987 the house was too small for the collection and its visitors. Salford Council offered to re-house the collection in a forty-room house on The Crescent, Salford, where it remains to this day. This internationally renowned library is a precious record of the lives and political beliefs of working people.

Who was Ruth Frow? Of a Jewish/Irish background, she was born Ruth Engel in London, in 1923. She had a mainly secular upbringing. After education at a private school, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), despite being underage and altering her date of birth in order to enlist. She did her war service with RAF Fighter Command in Kent, in the control room and on radar. During this time she met her first husband, Denis Haines, whom she married in 1944. At the end of the war she returned to London and campaigned for Labour in the 1945 General Election but subsequently joined the Communist Party, finding it more compatible with her ideals as a woman and as a political activist. She took on many official roles in the party so her eventual expulsion from the party in the 1980s, following factional rivalries, came as a shock to her. Ruth also became involved in the peace movement, again carrying out official duties for the British Peace Committee, and later for the Manchester Peace Committee. When the Manchester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) group was formed, she was elected vice-chairman.

After the war Ruth took part in the Emergency Training Scheme, becoming a teacher in 1949 and joining the National Union of Teachers. Eventually she became Deputy Head of Parrs Wood Comprehensive School, Didsbury. During her teaching career she represented Manchester Teachers’ Association and became President of Altrincham NUT in 1970.

Ruth had moved to Manchester after she met Edmund (Eddie) Frow at a Communist Party summer school in 1953. A shared passion for collecting books and documents related to the labour movement united them. Eddie had also been married previously, and the Communist Party, wary of any scandal surrounding cohabitation, ordered the couple to live apart. Initially Ruth and Eddie complied, but a couple of years after meeting they moved in together and were married in 1961.

The library that Ruth and Eddie built up was created after more than twenty-five years’ travelling around the British Isles in a Morris van with a caravan, visiting second-hand bookshops. Of their collecting, Ruth said that it was a disease, whereas Eddie insisted it was a hobby! Their library collection documented over 200 years of the story of working people and their struggle for social justice and political rights. Back at Kings Road, visitors were welcomed to peruse the collection and eventually in the early 1970s a charitable trust was established. The North West Labour History Group also used the library for its research and activities. When the library moved to Salford, Ruth and Eddie lived for a while in a flat within the property, before moving to their own home in Salford. Ruth founded the ‘Friends of the Library’ group, organising exhibitions and events in the library and elsewhere.

As well as collecting items for the library, Ruth and Eddie were enthusiastic writers of articles, essays, pamphlets and books on a wide range of historical, political and women’s issues. They were part of the editorial team of the Manchester Region History Review which was published annually in May. Ruth also had a passion for English literature, poetry (particularly Shelley), theatre and film, classical music and opera.

Ruth and Eddie were awarded honorary degrees from the Universities of Salford and of Central Lancashire for their work for the labour movement.

After Eddie’s death in 1997 Ruth continued to work at the library, greeting visitors, showing them around and, importantly, seeking sources of funding to keep the library afloat. In fact, shortly before her death she learned that an award from the Heritage Lottery Fund had ensured the continuation of the library. Ruth died on 11 January 2008 after a stroke and a heart attack, just two days after attending a library committee meeting, where she was still organising and caring for the library.

Trafford Local Studies holds a number of items relating to the Frows, including copies of the Manchester Region History Reviews and a copy of a news item on the Kings Road house and library.

Researched and written by Trafford Local Studies volunteer Sue Arcangeli 

Sources

Kevin Morgan, 'Obituary, Ruth Frow', The Guardian, 1 February 2008

Bernard Barry and Deborah Linton, 'Obituary, Ruth Frow', Morning Star, 15 and 21 January 2008

North West Labour History Group, Selected Publications by Ruth and Edmund Frow

Working Class Movement Library, 'Our Founders – Ruth and Eddie Frow', <https://www.wcml.org.uk/about-us/our-founders--ruth-and-eddie-frow/>

Trafford Local Studies Centre