14 Facts About Winifred Horrabin

Winifred Horrabin, nee Batho, was a British socialist activist and journalist.

Winifred Horrabin was born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 9 August 1887, daughter of Arthur John Batho, a postal telegraph clerk, and his wife Lilian, nee Outram.

Winifred Horrabin was the fourth of six children, three of whom died in infancy.

Winifred Horrabin's father died in May 1891, in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa, where he was seeking treatment for his tuberculosis.

Winifred Horrabin had a political awakening while a student, influenced by the South African socialist and feminist Olive Schreiner.

Winifred Horrabin was honorary secretary of The Plebs' League, and contributed to The Plebs, the League's journal, which her husband edited.

Winifred Horrabin became a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920.

Winifred Horrabin's trip appears to have been organised by the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

Winifred Horrabin visited Poland and witnessed a mass trial of political dissidents.

The Horrabins were involved in setting up the Socialist League, a left-wing faction within the Labour Party led by Stafford Cripps, in 1932, and it was Winifred who named it, after the original Socialist League, founded by William Morris.

Winifred Horrabin began reviewing books and films for Tribune in 1937, continuing to do so until 1948.

Winifred Horrabin wrote for the political magazine Time and Tide and had a weekly column in the Manchester Evening News from 1944 under the pseudonym Freda Wynne.

Winifred Horrabin died at her home in Dorking, Surrey, on 24 June 1971, and was cremated at Randall's Park crematorium, Leatherhead, on 30 June.

Winifred Horrabin's papers are held by the University of Hull.