DORA COX

As a member of Red Flannel Women’s Film Group, I had the privilege of meeting
Dora for the first time in the 1980’s when we made the film MAM about the
history of Welsh Women’s lives in the Valleys.

Dora was a reluctant interviewee, feisty, but self-effacing about her part in the
struggle for an equal society. Because she was not Welsh, she thought we
should interview her Welsh women comrades such as Annie Powell, rather than
her. However, they were either too infirm or no longer with us and Dora was the
only woman who could bear witness to their endeavours - so she reluctantly
agreed to be interviewed

Filming Dora was not an easy task for either the interviewee or the
interviewer! She told everyone that it was ‘hell’ but luckily for us and for future
generations, she agreed to go to hell and back not once but twice. We were able
to include her in MAM and to make a film about her life for BBC Wales Her rich
and unique life’s memories are now stored in the Welsh Film and Video archive
in Aberstwyth for future generations.

Today there’s only time to share just a few of those memories.

Her grandfather was a Yorkshireman who went to Russia to build the railways
and it was from there that her father was forced to flee at the turn of the century
having been involved in organising strikes in 1900. Upon his arrival in London,
he met and married Dora’s mother and Dora was born in 1904.

One of her earliest family memories is of the actual day of the Russian
Revolution when her father burst into the house, swept her mother off her feet
and twirled her round the living room, shouting Revolutzia, Revolutzia! The day
that her father had waited and hoped for had finally arrived.

1
She learnt her socialist principles early, her father walking Dora and her sister to
Socialist Sunday School every Sunday and she still had a copy of their ten
commandments in her scrapbook which were to guide her all her life.

As you will all know, Dora had a very lively intellect and no doubt she would have
done well in school if she had not been caught truanting. She told us that she
used to ride round London on the top deck of the bus, alighting occasionally to go
and sit in Selfridges Ladies Rest room, where she would write her
correspondence at the huge writing tables provided and sit for a while in the
sumptuous armchairs.

Having been caught, she felt that she had no alternative but to
leave school, rather than confess to her mother, and so she went to
Pittman’s typing college. She hated it at the time but her skills were
to prove invaluable to the party later when she used to sit up all night typing copy
for the daily news-sheets that were distributed each day during the general strike.

She had learnt Russian at home and her translation skills were also in great
demand. She joined the Young Communists in 1924, and was asked to escort a
group of young comrades to Leningrad for the tenth anniversary celebrations.

Although she was recalling events from over sixty years ago for the
films, she could remember their arrival as if it were yesterday. They arrived by
boat as the sun was rising, the beautiful city sparkling in the early morning light.
Her political destiny stretched out before her. All her hopes and aspirations were
to be confirmed by her experiences there. She loved it so much she stayed
three years and attended Trade Union College. Her class photo shows an
extraordinary ethnic mix - including Outer Mongolian Tribesmen, who she said
could be a bit fiery!
When she arrived back in London she met Idris, her lifelong companion and

2
political rock - their marriage of minds was to stand the test of time. Through
Idris, she first came to Wales in 1933 - witnessing at first hand the grinding
poverty throughout the coalfields. She recognised that not only did the party
need to do something about pay and working conditions for the miners, but that
other more far reaching changes in society would be necessary to ease the
burdens of the wives and mothers who fought a daily battle at home against
sickness and poverty.

She led the 1934 Hunger March with Lewis Jones, the charismatic
Miner’s Leader. They proudly marched through London at the head of the
massive demonstration that took place to mark their arrival and show mass
opposition to the means tests.

She was proud to call herself a socialist, unlike many in the Labour
Party today, and it was Dora’s socialist principles that kept her going - whether it
was pushing the children in a pram all round Cardiff to collect tins for the Spanish
Civil War effort or having the sad task of informing relatives of the Welsh Brigade
that their loved ones would not be returning. You could not have found a better
woman than Dora for the job.

She never gave up on her beliefs and she was still active in later life,
joining her local Miner’s Wives Support group during the ‘84 strike.
She was an inspiration to us both and to all in Red Flannel. Her spirit had never
been crushed by life’s events, although she found being old incredibly frustrating
and tedious. Indeed, she was still phoning Fran up at the age of 93 asking if she
could do some typing for her as she wanted to keep her mind active. She
assured her that she still had good typing speeds and I’m sure that she did.

Dora was someone who made a difference. She believed to her last breath that
together, we can change the world.
Michele Ryan 1995