Obituary from the March 1993 issue of the Socialist Standard
We regret to announce the death in December of Laurie Frank, who under his Party name of Frank Laurence, was for many years Secretary of our Central Branch.
Laurie Frank came to England from Austria just before the war and joined the Party in 1939. His father had been a Party member before the first world war. during which he was imprisoned in Alexandra Palace as an “enemy alien” and then deported to Germany.
During the 1939-45 war Laurie Frank was a conscientious objector on socialist grounds and. along with other socialists, was sent to work on the land. Besides his contribution as a member of the old Bloomsbury Branch, his main work for the Party was on the administrative side. The work of Central Branch Secretary involves sending EC Minutes, corresponding and collecting dues from members living in all pans of Britain and Laurie Frank was able to use the facilities of the ice cream trade association for which he worked to do this. For a number of years he was also the Literature Secretary dealing with the accounts and despatch of the Socialist Standard each month to branches, groups, bookshops and Companion Parties overseas.
Laurie Frank was not a member of the Party at the time of his death, but this cannot detract from the essential work he did while he was a member.
1 comment:
Laurie Frank was the son of Rudolf Frank, who was a longstanding supporter of the SPGB in Austria.
"Laurie Frank was not a member of the Party at the time of his death . . . " is a rather cryptic reference to the fact that, if not a member of the two branches who were expelled from the SPGB during this period, - I genuinely don't know if he was one of those expelled - he was most definitely a supporter of what we now know as the Socialist Studies Group.
Post a Comment