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Frank William North (23 June 1871 – 17 May 1925) was a Church of England clergyman who spent most of his career in Russia and Finland.

Born in Acton, North was the son of George William North, a merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Jane. He was baptized into the Church of England at Acton on 25 August 1871.

Educated at King's College London, in 1895 North was elected as a Theological Associate of his college.

In 1905, North was appointed as Chaplain to the Anglican Church in St Petersburg, where he remained until 1911. In 1910, in St Petersburg, he married Margaret Caird Birse, the daughter of a Scotsman settled in Russia since the 1850s, and their son Herbert Caird North was born on 3 April 1911.

St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Moscow

From 1911 until 1920, North served as Chaplain of St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Moscow, becoming a leader of the English-speaking community there. Early in the First World War, he held a military service in his church, following a march through the main streets of central Moscow, as a demonstration of British solidarity with Russia in the wartime Alliance.

After the October Revolution, North came into conflict with the Soviet authorities. Mrs North’s uncle, Edward Birse, was a business man in Russia who assisted the British diplomat and agent R. H. Bruce Lockhart at the time of the October Revolution.

On 12 February 1920, an agreement was signed between the British and the Soviets for an exchange of prisoners and others wishing to return home, and North took on the task of acting as Registrar for the evacuation of British residents. While in the course of this work, in April 1920 he was arrested and interrogated by the Cheka, The evacuation proceeded in May 1920 by the SS Dongola, which took North, his wife, his son, and many of his flock from Helsingfors to Southampton, arriving there on 22 May. Interviewed on board ship on his arrival, North gave an account of terrible experiences in Moscow and urged the isolation of the Soviet Union:

If we leave them alone and do not trade with them, I believe that the end of the Soviet rule is bound to come soon. Most of their transport is ruined, and the people are demoralised and refuse to work... It is all one great mad-house.

North reported that apart from the round of daily hardships, life in Moscow had become one of robbery. The Bolsheviks had stolen his church funds, including a fund he held for British people who were destitute in Moscow, and also his silver. Finally, they had stolen Mrs. North's jewels. The other Britons travelling with him had come safely home, determined to overcome any obstacle rather than endure any longer the misgovernment of the Soviets.

On 24 May 1920, The Times published an interview with North, in which he continued his critique of the situation in Russia and his views on the Bolsheviks. The Spectator of 29 May 1920 also carried a story about North’s experiences in Russia.

In June 1920, North poured scorn on George Lansbury, who had returned from Moscow with some favourable views of the Bolsheviks. North said that in Moscow Lansbury had been dependent on a Commissar called Joseph Fineberg, of whom he was also very critical. The Morning Post reported North’s disagreement with Lansbury and his experience in a Bolshevik jail, of which it said “The facts are too revolting for reproduction“.

Within a few months, North and his wife returned to Finland and settled there. They were living at 11, Ostra Brunnsparksalleen, Helsingfors, when North died there on 17 May 1925.

Notes

Category:1871 births Category:1925 deaths Category:20th-century Church of England clergy Category:Alumni of King's College London

Margaret Caird North

Margaret Caird North CBE (1879 – 13 January 1955) was a Scot born in Russia as Margaret Caird Birse.

In 1910, she married the Rev. Frank William North, chaplain of the Anglican Church in St Petersburg, and their son Herbert was born in April 1911. That year, they moved to Moscow, where North became the minister of St Andrew’s Anglican Church.

During the First World War, Margaret North was Head of the British Red Cross in Moscow, and suffered many troubles following the October Revolution. In May 1920, she was “repatriated” from Moscow to Southampton, sailing with her husband on the SS Dongola, although in fact she was travelling to a country she did not know. In September 1920, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services.

Her uncle Edward Birse was a business man in Russia who assisted R. H. Bruce Lockhart during and after the October Revolution. Her brother Arthur Birse was Winston Churchill’s Russian interpreter during the Second World War.

References

1984, North’s son Herbert Caird North deposited his father’s papers in the University of Leeds Special Collections. They consisted of Frank W. North's Russian bank and insurance documents, 1909-1919, Russian banknotes and treasury bills, 1898-1918, Mrs North's customs forms from 1920, photographs of St Andrew's vicarage, Moscow, and of members of the British community in Russia and their repatriation in 1920, together with North family correspondence and information on the family‘s history.

30 April 1920

• ”A BRITISH CHAPLAIN'S SAFETY”, Belfast News-Letter, Friday 30 April 1920, p. 5 [61 words]

A BRITISH CHAPLAIN'S SAFETY. Reuter’s Agency teams good authority that Rev. F. W. North, British Chaplain at Moscow. who, according the Moscow Isvestia, ”had been arrested by the...”

22 May 1920

• "RUSSIA ONE GREAT MADHOUSE, RUSSIA ONE GREAT MADHOUSE, DIVORCE MOCKERY. Southampton, May 22“ in Kalgoorlie Miner, 8 July 1920, Page 3
• "RUSSIA ONE GREAT MADHOUSE, DIVORCE MOCKERY. Southampton, May 22.

The Rev. F. W. North, the heroic British chaplain at Moscow, who arrived here to-day with a party of refugees from Russia, thus summed up the present condition of the country where he has lived and worked for the past 15 years: 'Russia has become one great mad-house.' As he spoke on the upper deck of the transport Dongola I looked below to the main deck. It was crowded with men, women, and little children, many British, all pale and drawn after months of hardship and semi-starvation. It was a terrible picture of what Soviet Government means in Russia. 'Most of them,' said Mr. North, 'could have eked out some sort of existence if they had stayed behind, but all are determined to overcome any obstacle rather than endure any longer the misgovernrnent of the Soviets. It is all one great mad-house.' For the rest, Mr. North's story, apart from the round of daily hardships, was mainly one of robbery. The Bolsheviks stole his church funds, a fund for the starving British people in Moscow, and his silver. Finally, they stole Mrs. North's jewels, and she recovered a few of the least valuable only by paying 103000 roubles (nominally about £1000). Mrs. North, who stuck to her husband through thick and thin, is a frail, pretty woman whose face showed many traces of the hardships and the long nervous strain which she has undergone during over two years. I asked her to describe the daily life under the Bolshevist regime from the point of view of an English wife and mother. 'It is impossible for any decent citizen,' she replied at once. 'Family life has disappeared. Privacy does not exist; everybody's life is a public affair. The Soviet lays down a certain cubic space as the proper accommodation for a given number of persons, with the result that most Russians are now living in one room, where they live, eat, and cook.' Another Englishwoman, Mrs. Louise Kuessner, the widow of a Russian, who has lived 20 years in Russia, gave a picture of life under the Soviets which exactly coincided with that drawn by Mrs. North. 'There is no such thing as the sanctity of marriage,' she said. 'Divorce is so easy in Moscow that a woman could almost have a fresh husband every day if she wished.' Mrs. Kuessner's daughter described the Soviet system of forced labour. 'Mother and I,' she said, 'were practically slaves and had to work as we were ordered. Sometimes I would be sent to the station t© shovel snow, while mother would be made to help clean, the streets.'

Almost all the refugees agreed that sooner or later the Bolshevist Government must fall. Mr. North was especially emphatic. 'If we leave them alone and do not trade with them,' he said, 'I believe that the end of the Soviet rule is bound to come soon. Most of their transport is ruined, and the people are demoralised and refuse to work.'

Mr. North said there are still thirteen English men and women imprisoned in Petrograd. One of them. Mrs. Lily Burnand, was very ill when the party left, but the remainder were then well. Their names are: George Gibson, James Maxwell, Annie Maxwell, Lily Burnand, Alice Murphy, Harold Rayner, Mrs. Kennedy, and Norah Macpherson, all of whom are charged with conspiring with the 'Whites' against the Soviet Government; ... Keeling, charged with entering the country without permission; Boris Jobling, who is accused of forgery; Edward Since, detained as a hostage; Professor Sharp Wilson, professor of English at the University of Moscow, charged with trying to procure secret information about the Soviet's activities; E. J. Atkins, offence unknown.

24 May 1920

• Gleanings and Memoranda, Volume 52 (National Unionist Association, 1920), p. 52

The Times of May 24, 1920, published an interview on the condition of Russia with the Rev. F. W. North, Church of England Chaplain at the British Church, Moscow, who arrived at Southampton from that country on May 22, 1920. The Rev. F. W. North lived in Russia for over 10 years under the old regime, and for four years of the most terrible period which Russia has ever undergone. His work necessitated his coming constantly into contact with the Soviet authorities.

29 May 1920

• From The Spectator, 29 May 1920, p. 2

“The Rev. F. W. North, the Chaplain of the British Church in Moscow, returned home last Saturday with a party of refugees. As Mr. North has lived in Moscow for the past ...”

14 June 1920

• Patrick Wright, Iron Curtain: From Stage to Cold War, p. 421 (note 83):

F. W. North (the recently repatriated vicar of Moscow), assailed Lansbury in his absence, pointing out his 'dependence' while in Moscow, on 'A Jew Commissar named Fineberg', offering highly critical accounts of the Bolsheviks' assault on the church, and describing the hideous conditions in their jails. Their testimony on this latter matter prompted the Morning Post to declare 'The facts are too revolting for reproduction'. ('Mr. Lansbury given the “Lie Direct”', Morning Post, 14 June 1920, p. 7.)

11 September 1920

• ”MOSCOW CHAPLAIN’S WIFE. C.B.E. for Brave Mrs. North” in Portsmouth Evening News, Saturday 11 September 1920, p. 5:

The King, at the Prime Minister's request, has conferred the distinction of Commander of the Order of the British Empire on Mrs. North, wife of the Rev. Frank W. North, who was ...” [69 words]