| Administrative History | Frederick Cyril Boden was born on 17 May 1902 in Chesterfield, the eldest child of Benjamin and Annie; Benjamin being variously employed as a postman (1898), assistant at a furniture dealer's (1911). Having attended a council school in Chesterfield In 1916, aged 13, Boden started work at Williamthorpe Colliery, initially employed underground and then from 1921 on the surface night shift. Boden' first poetry anthology 'Pit-head Poems' was published by J. M. Dent & Sons in 1927. Described by some as Chesterfield's D. H. Lawrence, Boden's poetry and novels particularly considered life in the mines of Chesterfield. In 1933 Frederick married Dorothy Brecknell in Exeter, Devon, and seems to have spent the remainder of his life in the south west (including Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset and Exeter). In 1939 he is described as a Lecturer in Logic and Philosophy, probably at University College, Exeter. According to an online biography of Andrew Boden, he worked there until 1926 and after moving to Exeter taught for the Worker's Education Association.
Novels: Miner (1932), Flo (1933), A Derbyshire Tradegy (1935)
Poetry: Pithead Poems (1927), Out of the Coalfields (1929) |
| Administrative History Sources | Online Biography of Andrew Boden, www.andrewboden.ca/biography/, 18 Apr 2019; 1939 National Register; 1911 Census; Chesterfield St Mary and All Saints Baptism Register, 1902; General Register Office marriage and death indexes; A note on the author by G N Pocock in 'Pit-head Poems'; London Gazette, 27 May 1898 p. 3317 |
| Custodial History | These records were transferred from Chesterfield Library in April 2019. No further information about their provenance is known. |