Anne Symonds

Anne Hilda Symonds (née Harrisson) was born on 22 August 1916 in Liverpool, England. Her father was Major Roland Damer Harrisson (1881–1917), a member of the Royal Field Artillery who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Her mother was Hilda Beatrice Corbett (1888–1972), a landscape painter trained at the Ruskin School of Art and the daughter of solicitor S. M. Grierson of Liverpool. Major Harrisson, her father, died in 1917, a year after her birth. Symonds had an elder brother, Peter Damer Harrisson, who became a consultant forester.

There were speculations that her biological father might be British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, whom her mother had met in 1915; however, Symonds believed otherwise. Asquith maintained a presence in her early childhood, supporting her mother financially and allowing her to stay with him in London and Sutton Courtenay. In correspondence, Asquith called her "the greatest dear" in 1920. Following her father’s death, her widowed mother moved to Boars Hill in Berkshire and pursued landscape painting, cultivating associations with the Spencer family, the Nash brothers, and notable literary figures such as Robert Bridges, John Masefield, and Robert Graves.

At age eight, Symonds attended the Farmhouse School near Wendover, where she participated in farm work and formed friendships with the nieces of Virginia Woolf, Anne and Judith Stephen. When she was fifteen, she transferred to Oxford High School. In 1934, she matriculated at Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). During her time at Oxford, she was involved in the Oxford University Labour Club and counted future politicians Denis Healey and Christopher Mayhew among her friends.

Symonds's early career included work as a researcher for Lord Beaverbrook and as a writer for the Evening Standard. In 1939, she traveled to the United States. She married Richard Symonds, an Oxford acquaintance, in May 1940; he was sent to India with the Cripps Mission. During World War II, she collaborated with Quakers to establish a home for evacuee children in Torquay, Devon, and briefly worked with her cousin Tom Harrisson on the Mass Observation project. Subsequently, she was employed at the Ministry of Information under Earl of Arran. Towards the end of the war, she was stationed in Austria, working in Vienna and Carinthia on journalism for Austrian newspapers. During this period, she met Albert Pierrepoint, an executioner.

In 1945, she authored a book titled "Too Lively to Live" under the name Anne Damer, co-writing with Jack Denton Scott. She divorced Richard Symonds in 1948 and subsequently joined the BBC Overseas Service, where she commissioned and produced talks, arts programs, and other content. Notable programs included "Under Big Ben" and "Meet an MP" for the series London Calling Europe. She maintained close connections with political figures such as Hugh Gaitskell and Denis Healey.

In 1953, Symonds gave birth to her son, Matthew Symonds, with John Beavan. Matthew would later co-found the newspaper The Independent and is the father of Carrie Johnson, wife of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

After retiring from the BBC in 1976, Symonds edited APEX’s journal for politician Denis Howell and contributed to the quarterly magazine Europe Left, associated with the Labour Movement for Europe. Anne Hilda Symonds passed away on 6 February 2017 at the age of 100.