Richard Michael Fox better known as R. M. Fox, was a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 of the Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 left.

Fox was born in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 in 1891, the second of four sons to a schoolteacher mother and engineering workman father. His parents were active in the Co-operative Movement, and as a young man Fox joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain

Socialist Party of Great Britain

The Socialist Party of Great Britain , is a small Marxist political party within the impossibilist tradition. It is best known for its advocacy of using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes; opposition to reformism; and its early adoption of the theory of state capitalism to describe the...

 and the Industrial Workers of the World

Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...

.

On the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Fox denounced it as an imperialist

Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

 war in which workers had no interest. His refusal to be conscripted

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 led to his being tried and imprisoned several times throughout the war. He was abruptly released in April 1919; later that year he authored his first book, Factory Echoes, and enrolled at Ruskin College in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

.

While at Ruskin, Fox became the editor of New Oxford and gained a reputation as a labour journalist. He was invited to Soviet Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 in 1921 to observe the results of the recent Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

, and in 1922 he visited Dublin and established contacts with leading leftist figures there.

Following his graduation from Ruskin, Fox married children's author Patricia Lynch

Patricia Lynch

Patricia Lynch was an Irish author of children's literature and journalist. She was the author of some 48 novels and 200 short stories. She is best known for blending Irish rural life and fantasy as in The Turf-Cutter's Donkey....

 and they spent time in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 before eventually settling in Dublin. Fox's articles appeared in the Irish Statesman

Irish Statesman

The Irish Statesman was a weekly journal promoting the views of the Irish Dominion League. It ran from 27 June 1919 to June 1920, edited by Warre B. Wells and with contributions from W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and George William Russell...

and in the late 1920s he began publishing his books through Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

's Hogarth Press

Hogarth Press

The Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond, in which they began hand-printing books....

. His autobiography, Smokey Crusade, was published in 1937 and an account of his trip to Maoist China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 was published as China Diary in 1959.

Fox died in December 1969, three years before his wife. They are both buried in Glasnevin Cemetery

Glasnevin Cemetery

Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...

.

Selected bibliography

• R. M. Fox. Factory Echoes, 1919.
• R. M. Fox. Rebel Irishwomen, 1935.
• R. M. Fox. Smokey Crusade, 1937.
• R. M. Fox. Green Banners: The story of the Irish struggle, 1938.
• R. M. Fox. The History of the Irish Citizen Army, 1943.
• R. M. Fox. James Connolly: The Forerunner, 1943
• R. M. Fox. Years of Freedom: the story of Ireland 1921–48, 1948.
• R. M. Fox. Jim Larkin: The Rise of the Underman, 1957.
• R. M. Fox. Louie Bennett: Her Life and Times, 1958.
• R. M. Fox. China Diary, 1959.