Ruth Frow

Ruth Frow (28 July 1922 – 11 January 2008) was a peace activist and historian of the labour movement. She co-founded the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, a collection of material associated with labour and working class history.

Early life and education Ruth Engel was born on 28 July 1922 in St John's Wood in London. Her father, Leon Alfred Mayer Engel, was a concert pianist and a travelling sales representative in embroideries. Her mother, Ethel Maud Engel, was originally Irish Catholic but converted to Judaism, her husband's faith, on their marriage. Ruth attended a Jewish synagogue, but had a largely secular upbringing, and she attended a local private girls’ school.

The family moved to an estate built by a cousin, Engel Park in Mill Hill, when Frow was five. Her father died when she was thirteen.

Career and politics Upon leaving school, she enrolled in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in April 1940, though underage, working in the RAF Fighter Command control room and on radar. Here she met her first husband, Denis Edmund Haines, an electrical engineer, and the pair married on 25 July 1944. She was Secretary of Teachers for Peace and Manchester branch of the Peace Committee, and was elected Vice-Chair of the Manchester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

In the 1950s she lived for a time with Communist party members Bill Wainwright and Molly Wainwright.

The couple were both awarded honorary degrees from the University of Salford in 1989.

The Working Class Movement Library

Along with her husband Edmund, Frow was the founder of the Working Class Movement Library in Manchester. The library was originally the personal book collection of the couple, which scholars or students of labour history could access for free. In 1972 the Frows established the library as a charitable trust, The offer from the council was accepted over similar offers from universities in order to avoided limited access for workers to their own history.

Publications Frow, often along with her husband Edmund, published extensively on historical and political issues. Her writings were aimed at a variety of wide audiences.

Frow died 11 January 2008. A a celebration of her life was held on 5 April 2008 at the Peel Hall at the University of Salford.