Papers of Reg Groves (1908-1988), journalist and socialist

Minutes, correspondence and printed matter re the formation of the British Left Opposition, 1929-33; correspondence, addresses and cuttings as Labour parliamentary candidate, 1938-59; manuscript and printed writings by Groves, with related correspondence and collected materials re various aspects of British socialist and labour history, 1910-76, and Groves' published biography of Rev. Conrad Noel.

Born in 1908, Reg Groves' early work experience included a variety of jobs, for example messenger boy, temporary railway porter and Post Office engineering trainee, and he did not become a professional journalist until 1934. He was well known as a pioneering member of the British Section of the International Left Opposition, as a Labour party candidate, and as the author of a number of books on socialist history. He died in 1988.

One of Groves' works was a biography of the Christian Socialist, Rev. Conrad Noel (1869-1942). Ordained in the Church of England in 1894, from 1907 Noel was the organising secretary of the Church Socialist League. He also founded the Catholic Crusade in 1918. A writer of several books, including 'The Battle of the Flags' (1922) and 'Jesus the Heretic' (1939), he was vicar at Thaxted in Essex from 1910. He also wrote 'The mystery of Victor Grayson' a biography of the MP and orator who disappeared in 1920.

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/GRO

The collection was purchased by the Centre in 1977-80.

November 1989, Christian Socialist material; May 1990, Miscellaneous correspondence.

[A file of correspondence between Groves and Revd St John B. Groser was reunited with the Groser Papers in Lambeth Palace Library].