Thomas Henry (Tom) Wintringham (1898-1949) was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was an important figure in the formation of the British Home Guard during the World War II. 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... A Home Guard is a part-time civilian reserve military force similar to a militia. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

Life

Tom Wintringham was born 1898 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk and Balliol College, Oxford but abandoned his university career at the outbreak of the First World War to join the Royal Flying Corps. After the war he became a military journalist and founded the journal The Left Review. Statistics Population: 87,574 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: TA279087 Administration District: North East Lincolnshire Region: Yorkshire and the Humber Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: North East Lincolnshire Historic county: Lincolnshire Services Police force: Humberside Police Ambulance service: {{{Ambulance}}} Post office and telephone Post town... Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. ... Gresham’s School is an independent, fully co-educational HMC boarding school set in the beautiful town of Holt in the North Norfolk countryside. ... Holt is a market town in the county of Norfolk, England. ... College name Balliol College Named after John de Balliol Established 1263 Sister College St Johns Master Andrew Graham JCR President Jack Hawkins Undergraduates 403 MCR President Chelsea Payne Graduates 228 Homepage Boatclub Balliol College, founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard... The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of World War I. Origin and Early History Formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912, the RFC superseded the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. ...

In 1923 Wintringham joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1926 he had a part in planning the General Strike and was sentenced to prison for sedition. In 1930 he founded newspaper the Daily Worker. Though at the centre of CPGB oranisation, he was often at odds with Party policy, believing in a communism of alliance and co-operation, rather than the dominant comintern ideology of class against class. Wintringham's ideas became party dogma when the comintern announced the 'Popular Front' - a communism Wintringham was preparerd to fight for. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom. ... A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ... Sedition is a deprecated term of law to refer to covert conduct such as speech and organization that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. ... The Daily Worker was a newspaper published by the Communist Party USA, a Comintern affiliated organization in New York, beginning in 1924. ...

During the Spanish Civil War, Wintringham went to Spain first as a journalist but eventually commanded the British contingent of the International Brigades. Some socialist commentators have credited him with the whole idea of "international" brigades. He also had an affair with a US journalist, Kitty Bowler, whom he later married. In February 1937 he was wounded in the Battle of Jarama. While injured in Spain he became friends with Ernest Hemingway. When he returned to the battalion the next summer he contracted typhoid, was again wounded at Quinto in August 1937 and was repatriated in October. His later book English Captain is based on these experiences. Combatants Spanish Republic CNT-FAI UGT POUM Soviet Union International Brigades Spanish State Falangists Carlists Fascist Italy Nazi Germany Commanders Manuel Azaña Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Francisco Franco Casualties Civilians killed/wounded = hundreds of thousands The Spanish Civil War, which lasted from July 17, 1936 to April... Flag of the International Brigades Blason of the International Brigades Fifteenth International Brigade redirects here. ... Jarama is a river in central Spain. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... This is about the disease typhoid fever. ...

In 1938 the Communist Party condemned his wife as a Trotskyist spy but he refused to leave her - he quit the party instead. He came to mistrust the party's subservience to Stalin's Russia and Comintern. 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Trotskii, Trotski, Trotzky) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (&#1051... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including...

Back in England, Tom Hopkinson recruited him to work for the newspaper Picture Post. Picture Post, a magazine that pioneered photojournalism along with its competitor Lilliput, was first published in the United Kingdom in 1938. ...

At the outbreak of World War II, Wintringham applied for an army officer's commission but was rejected. When the Communist Party promulgated its policy of staying out of the war due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he strongly condemned their policies. Because of the appeasement policies of prime minister Neville Chamberlain, he also regarded the Tories as Nazi sympathizers and wrote that they should be removed from office. He wrote for Picture Post, the Daily Mirror, and wrote columns for Tribune and the New Statesman. Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... Molotov signs the German-Soviet non-aggression pact. ... Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a Conservative British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a popular British tabloid daily newspaper. ... Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, currently a magazine though in the past more often a newspaper, published in London. ... The New Statesman is a left-of-centre political weekly published in London. ...

In May 1940, after the escape from Dunkirk, Wintringham began to write in support of the Local Defence Volunteers, the forerunner of the Home Guard. On July 10, he opened the private Home Guard training school at Osterley Park, London. Combatants United Kingdom, France Germany Commanders Lord Gort Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A), Ewald von Kleist (Panzergruppe von Kleist) Strength approx. ... A Home Guard is a part-time civilian reserve military force similar to a militia. ... July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ... Osterley House with Stable Block to right Design for the entrance facade of Osterley House by Robert Adam A design for one of the walls of the Estruscan dressing room at Osterly Park by Robert Adam. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Wintringham's training methods were mainly based on his experience in Spain. He even had trainers who had fought alongside him in Spain who trained volunteers in anti-tank warfare and demolitions. He also taught street fighting and guerrilla warfare. He wrote many articles in Picture Post and the Daily Mirror propagating his views about the Home Guard with the motto "a people's war for a people's peace". Anti-tank, or simply AT, refers to any method of combating military armored fighting vehicles, notably tanks. ... A massive crane is used to demolish this tower block in northern England Demolition is the opposite of construction: the tearing-down of buildings and other structures. ... Street fighting is a term used to denote spontaneous, hand-to-hand fighting in public places. ... Look up guerrilla in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The British Army still did not dare trust Wintringham because of his communist past. After September 1940 the army began to take charge of the Home Guard training in Osterley and Wintringham and his comrades were gradually sidelined. Wintringham resigned in April 1941. Ironically, despite his activities in support of the Home Guard, Wintringham was never allowed to join the organisation himself because of a policy barring membership to Communists and Fascists.

In 1942 Wintringham proceeded to found a Common Wealth Party with Vernon Bartlett, Sir Richard Acland and J. B. Priestley. He received 48% of the vote in at the Midlothian North by-election in February 1943. After the war he continued to write about military history. The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party active in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. ... Vernon Bartlett (30 April 1894, Tiverton, Devon - January 18, 1983) was a British politician and journalist. ... Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (26 November 1906, Broadclyst, Devon–24 November 1990) was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party and a Liberal and Labour politician. ... Priestley at the microphone during one of his Second World War broadcasts John Matthew Smith Priestley, OM (September 13, 1894, Bradford, England - August 14, 1984, Stratford-upon-Avon) was an English writer and broadcaster. ... A by-election or bye-election is a special election held to fill a political office when the incumbent has died or resigned. ...

Tom Wintringham died in Lincolnshire in 1949. 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ...

Bibliography

Books by Tom Wintringham

• War! And the way to fight against it., Communist Party of Great Britain, London, 1932
• Air Raid Warning! Why the Royal Air Force is to be doubled, Workers' Bookshop, London, 1934
• The Coming World War., Wishart 1935
• Mutiny. Mutinies from Spartacus to Invergordon., Stanley Nott, London 1936
• English Captain., Faber 1939 (also in Penguin)
• How to reform the army ('Fact No. 98'), London, 1939
• Deadlock War., Faber 1940
• New Ways of War., Penguin Special 1940
• Armies of Freemen., Routledge 1940
• Ferdinand Otto Miksche: Blitzkrieg, translated by Tom Wintringham, Faber, London, 1941
• Guerrilla Warfare., By Yank Levy. Penguin 1941, said to be written for Yank by Tom Wintringham.
• Peoples' War., Penguin Special 1942
• Freedom is our Weapon. A Policy for Army Reform., Kegan Paul 1941
• Politics of Victory., Routledge 1941
• Weapons and Tactics from Troy to Stalingrad., Houghton Mifflin, Boston, USA 1943, republished 1973 with Col. John Blashford-Snell ISBN 0-14-021522-0
• Your M.P. By 'Gracchus'. Gollancz 1944
• We're Going On - Collected Poems, Smokestack Books, UK, 2006

Books about Tom Wintringham

• David Ferenbach - Tom Wintringham and Socialist Defence (1981)
• Hugh Purcell - The Last English Revolutionary: A Biography of Tom Wintringham 1898-1949 (2004) (ISBN 0-7509-3080-2)
• Stephen Cullen - Home Guard Socialism (2006)

External links

• Tom Wintringham: His Place in History by Hugh Purcell
• Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London Index summary
• The Poet of Action, Morning Star, 14 March 2006.