{{Short description|British poet and printer (1891–1975)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Francis Meynell in 1946.jpg|thumb|Meynell in 1946]]
'''Sir Francis Meredith Wilfrid Meynell''' (12 May 1891 – 10 July 1975) was a British [[poet]] and [[Printer (publisher)|printer]] at [[The Nonesuch Press]].
==Early career== He was the son of the journalist and publisher [[Wilfrid Meynell]] and the poet [[Alice Meynell]], a [[suffragist]] and prominent [[Roman Catholic]] convert. After leaving [[Trinity College, Dublin]], he joined his father at the publisher [[Burns & Oates]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Meynell|first1=Francis|title=My Lives|date=1971|publisher=The Bodley Head|location=London|pages=59}}</ref> In 1913 he was brought in by [[George Lansbury]] to be business manager of the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|''Daily Herald'']]''.<ref>John Shepherd, ''George Lansbury: At the Heart of Old Labour'' (2004), p. 146</ref>
In 1912 he came to the notice of wealthy American, [[Mary Melissa Hoadley Dodge]], who was domiciled in England. She knew Meynell's parents and had seen him speak in defence of activists of the [[Suffragette|suffragette movement]] in Queen's Hall. With her companion, [[Countess Muriel De La Warr]], she provided support and funding for him in 1916 to start the ''Pelican Press'' and also helped with funding for the ''Daily Herald''. In 1921 Meynell was editor of the weekly paper ''The Communist'' and became involved with a libel action that he lost. The award against him was £2000, and not being able to pay he filed for bankruptcy. Dodge and De La Warr came to his rescue but requested that their donation remain anonymous. Dodge became a godparent to Meynell's first child, Cynthia, in 1915.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Meynell|first1=Francis|title=My Lives|date=1971|publisher=The Bodley Head|location=London|pages=79–133}}</ref>
==Conscientious objector== Meynell became liable for call-up for [[military service]] in 1916, and applied for exemption on the ground of being a [[conscientious objector]]. He appeared before a local tribunal in Marylebone in August 1916 and a county appeal tribunal in September. He was granted exemption from combatant service only, and surrendered himself to the civil police on 29 January 1917. Handed over by Westminster magistrates to the military authorities, he was held in the guard room at [[Hounslow]] Barracks and went on hunger strike. After three weeks in hospital, he was on 28 February 1917 discharged by the army as being unlikely to become an efficient soldier.<ref>''The Tribunal'', 8 March 1917</ref> He returned to his work at the Pelican Press and the Herald.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Meynell|first1=Francis|title=My Lives|date=1971|publisher=The Bodley Head|location=London|pages=93–103}}</ref>
==Socialism== Meynell was also a socialist who supported the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republicans]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>Katharine Bail Hoskins, ''Today the Struggle: Literature and Politics in England during the Spanish Civil War''. University of Texas Press, 1969, pg. 18.</ref> His fusion of progressive politics and conservative aesthetic tastes, similar to those of [[William Morris]] caused some amusement amongst his friends; the ''Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science'' notes that "he once set a left-wing propaganda pamphlet in [[Cloister Old Face]] and surrounded it with a border of 17th-century [[Fleuron (typography)|fleurons]]."<ref name="KentLancour1977">{{cite book|first=James|last=Dearden|title=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 20 - Nigeria: Libraries in to Oregon State University Library|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5D_TCESmm5AC&pg=PA91|date=1 February 1977|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-0-8247-2020-9|pages=91–100}}</ref>
==Family== Meynell married three times. His first wife was Hilda Peppercorn (1886-1962), daughter of painter [[Arthur Douglas Peppercorn]]. She was a concert pianist who performed using the name Hilda Saxe. She married Meynell in 1914 and they had one child, Cynthia. In 1925, following his divorce from Hilda, Meynell married Vera Rosalind Wynn Mendel (1895-1947). She was the daughter of Edith Wynne and [[William Mendel]], a German born financier who had underwritten several stock market flotations in the late 19th century including [[Harrods]] and [[D H Evans|D. H. Evans]]. Vera and their mutual friend David Garnett provided the initial funding for the Nonesuch Press; she also helped in the early days with production and distribution. They had a son in 1930 (Benedict) and divorced in 1945. Vera took her own life on August 4, 1947.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Meynell|first1=Francis|title=My Lives|date=1971|publisher=The Bodley Head|location=London|pages=74, 153, 279}}</ref>
Meynell was knighted in 1946 and in the same year married [[Alix Kilroy]] (1903–1999), a civil servant with the Board of Trade. They worked together during [[World War II]] on '''Utility Design''', an austere and functional style. After the war they lived and farmed near [[Lavenham]]<ref>[http://www.semplepress.co.uk/news/2014/02/an-invitation-from-alix-and-francis.html An invitation from Alix and Francis Meynell — Semple Press] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105094644/http://www.semplepress.co.uk/news/2014/02/an-invitation-from-alix-and-francis.html |date=5 November 2016 }} Retrieved 2011-11-04.</ref> in [[Suffolk]] for many years. Their union was childless.<ref>{{cite news|last1=MacCarthy|first1=Fiona|title=Dame Alix Meynell|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/sep/02/guardianobituaries|website=The Guardian|date=2 September 1999 |accessdate=2 March 2017}}</ref>
==References== * Sir Francis Meynell (1971) ''My Lives'' * Dame Alix Meynell (1988) ''Public Servant, Private Woman: An Autobiography''
==Notes== <references/>
==External links== * [http://www.myfonts.com/person/meynell/francis/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311040632/http://www.myfonts.com/person/meynell/francis/ |date=11 March 2007 }} Profile of Sir Francis Meynell * [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101031442/] Biography at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription required) * [http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/design-archives/resources/rdis-at-britain-can-make-it,-1946/francis-meynell University of Brighton - Francis Meynell] {{Authority control}}
{{start box}} {{s-media}} {{succession box|title=Editor of ''[[Workers' Weekly (UK)|The Communist]]''|years=1921|before=[[Fred Willis (communist)|Fred Willis]]|after=[[Raymond Postgate]]}} {{end box}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meynell, Francis}} [[Category:1891 births]] [[Category:1975 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century British poets]] [[Category:British conscientious objectors]] [[Category:British male poets]] [[Category:British publishers (people)]] [[Category:British Roman Catholics]] [[Category:British socialists]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:People from Lavenham]] [[Category:Place of birth missing]] [[Category:20th-century British male writers]] [[Category:Private press movement people]] [[Category:Letterpress printmakers]]