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Rosalind Travers Hyndman

Rosalind Travers Hyndman (1874 – 7 April 1923)[1][2] was an English poet, writer, suffragist,[3] and socialist.[2]

Rosalind Travers Hyndman
In The Bookman, February 1908
Born
Rosalind Caroline Travers

1874 (1874)
Horsham, West Sussex, England
Died7 April 1923(1923-04-07) (aged 48–49)
Hampstead, London, England
Occupation(s)Poet, writer, suffragist, socialist
OrganizationSocial Democratic Federation
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1914; died 1921)​

Life

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Rosalind Caroline Travers was born in Horsham in 1874, the daughter of John Amory Travers and Florence Ellicot, whose father was the Bishop of Gloucester.[1][4][5] John Amory Travers was an Army officer, who attained the rank of colonel.[6] Raised in a comfortable home, Tortington House, Arundel, Sussex, Rosalind was drawn into politics through the women's suffrage movement.[2][6]

She published two books of plays and poems.[1] For one of these, The Two Arcadias (1905), Richard Garnett wrote an introduction.[1] In a letter to Edward Dowden, he said: "all through there are evidences of strong feeling and occasionally of deep thinking", concluding "It may be that Miss Travers will eventually find other modes of expression more congenial than poetry, but I am confident that, one way or other, she will achieve something remarkable".[7] Reviewing it in Twentieth Century, Dowden wrote:

If we were to classify certain poets into two groups, those who sink deeper and deeper through beauty towards its centre, like Keats, and those who, like Shelley, mount towards beauty from level to level of clear air, the writer of these poems must be ranked among the spirits who climb or soar.[8]

 
Henry Hyndman, whom Rosalind Travers married in 1914

In 1908, Travers travelled to Finland, developing a sympathy for the Finnish struggle against Russian rule.[6] She met H. M. Hyndman in 1909 at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.[6] That year, Travers published Letters from Finland. One reviewer wrote that this contained:

an amount of humour which give to her narrative a peculiar charm. She is a poet, and though in her preface she expresses her diffidence as to the ability of a "verse-maker" to undertake a prose book of travel, the reader, and Finland too, have good reason to be thankful that she is a poet. For Finland is a country which, described by a prosaic pen, would leave one cold and unenthusiastic.[9]

Travers wrote admiringly of Finland, known for its educational achievements and positive record with regards to women's rights.[10][11] For Travers, in this latter respect, Finland could be seen as "the only civilised country in Europe".[10] She corresponded closely with Maikki Friberg, a Finnish suffragist and peace activist.[12]

On 14 May 1914, aged 39, Travers married Henry Hyndman.[6] This put her at odds with her parents, who disapproved.[13] It was said that Rosalind's "ardent support for the Finnish cause reinforced his own lifelong concern for oppressed nationalities".[14] He dedicated The Awakening of Asia (1919) to her.[15]

Hyndman died on 22 November 1921 aged 79.[16] In 1923, Travers published a memoir of the last decade of her husband's life: The Last Years of H. M. Hyndman.[6]

Death and legacy

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Soon after submitting her manuscript for publication, Rosalind Travers Hyndman took an overdose of sleeping tablets, and died on 7 April at her home in Well Walk, Hampstead.[6][17] Her will stated that her estate bed devoted to such causes as would keep H. M. Hyndman's legacy alive, alongside £600 to be divided among members of the Social Democratic Federation in need.[6]

Funds derived from either of the Hyndmans' literary works were intended to finance a Hyndman Literary Trust, publishing works by or about Henry.[6][18] As a result, a pamphlet called Introduction to 'The Life to Come' was published - the preface of a work unfinished at his death.[6] Books of a Lifetime, also by H. M. Hyndman, was an account of the four books which had most influenced him: Lewis H. Morgan's Ancient Society; Karl Marx's Das Kapital; P.B. Shelley's Prometheus Unbound; and Eugène Sue's Le Juif Errant.[6]

Rosalind Hyndman's funeral at Golders Green Crematorium was led by humanist Frederick James Gould.[19][4] In the course of his address, Gould said:

She was, in the finest sense, a citizen of the world, and her heart burned In service of the idea of liberation.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d McCrimmon, Barbara (1989). Richard Garnett: the Scholar as Librarian. Chicago: American Library Association. ISBN 978-0-8389-0508-1.
  2. ^ a b c "Hyndman, Henry Mayers (1842–1921), socialist leader". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34088. Retrieved 20 December 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "British suffragette Rosalind Travers' article on the status of Finnish women in 1911". A Tale of Two Countries. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Vailima (27 June 1923). "Rosalind Travers Hyndman". Maoriland Worker. p. 12.
  5. ^ "News Notes". The Bookman. Vol. XXIII, no. 197. London. February 1908. p. 188. Retrieved 17 February 2024 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Chushichi Tsuzuki (1961). H. M. Hyndman and British Socialism. Internet Archive. Oxford University Press.
  7. ^ Garnett, R. S. (Robert Singleton); Dowden, Edward; Garnett, Richard; Rossetti, William Michael (1917). Letters about Shelley interchanged by three friends: Edward Dowden, Richard Garnett, and Wm. Michael Rossetti. Edited with an introd. by R.S. Garnett. Robarts - University of Toronto. London Hodder and Stoughton.
  8. ^ The Review of Reviews. Hulton Educational Publications Ltd. May 1905.
  9. ^ Allshorn, L. (September 1911). "Finland and the Finns". The English Illustrated Magazine. 45 (102): 588–593.
  10. ^ a b Morgan, Kevin; Majander, Mikko; Rentola, Kimmo (February 2012), "A worm's-eye view of Finland?", Ei ihan teorian mukaan, Tyovaen Historian ja Perinteen Tutkimuksen Seura & Yhteiskunnallinen arkistosäätiö, pp. 139–152, retrieved 20 December 2023
  11. ^ "Recent Periodicals and New Books". The Economic Journal. 21 (81): 174–183. 1911. doi:10.1093/ej/21.81.174. ISSN 0013-0133. JSTOR 2222102.
  12. ^ "Rosalind Travers telling about Finns in London in her letter". A Tale of Two Countries. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  13. ^ Wolff, Robert Lee (1979). Sensational Victorian : the life and fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Internet Archive. New York : Garland Pub. ISBN 978-0-8240-1618-0.
  14. ^ Seton-Watson, Hugh (1981). The making of a new Europe : R.W. Seton-Watson and the last years of Austria-Hungary. Internet Archive. Seattle : University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-95792-0.
  15. ^ Hyndman, H. M. (Henry Mayers) (1919). The Awakening of Asia. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. New York: Boni and Liveright.
  16. ^ Dictionary of Labour Biography. Vol. 10. Basingstoke: Macmillan. 2000. ISBN 978-0-333-38784-9.
  17. ^ "Cyanide Means Death: Mystery of the Death of Socialist's Widow". Liverpool Echo. 12 April 1923. p. 7. Retrieved 17 February 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Social-Democratic Federation". Justice. 8 November 1923. p. 6.
  19. ^ "Mrs. Hyndman Cremated". Sunday Mirror. 15 April 1923. p. 12. Retrieved 17 February 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
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