Dora Black (1894 – 1986), the wife of the legendary philosopher Bertrand Russell led a life worthy of note. A hard-edged feminist and social campaigner, she at first rejected Russell’s offer of marriage as she thought marriage was a restriction on women’s liberty. She was also a sexual pioneer, believing marriage to be no reason not to sleep with whomever she pleased.

Born to a liberal father, Black had opportunities in education and won a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge at which she received a first class honours degree in modern languages.

She met Bertrand Russell in 1916 and the pair began a sexual relationship, which led to Black’s initial rejection of marriage. She joined Russell in several social campaigns, including his campaign against military conscription in World War I.

Dora and Bertie visited Russia in 1920, soon after the Bolshevik revolution. Russell was unimpressed by Lenin but Dora, like many English socialists at the time, saw a vision of a future ideal civilisation. The pair also visited China.

Upon their return to England, Dora married Russell but was uneasy with what she thought was a betrayal of feminist principles. They soon had their first child, John Russell (1921).

In 1923, Dora Russell campaigned passionately for birth control, joining influential figures such as H.G Wells and Maynard Keynes in founding the Worker’s Birth Control Group. She also campaigned in the Labour party for birth-control clinics with little success.

Dora with Bertrand founded a school in 1927 – Beacon Hill ‘Free School’ in which they tried to teach children to leave behind primitive superstitions and irrational views of previous generations. Dora expressed her views on education in a book called “In Defence Of Children”.

Bertrand left Dora for one of his students after Dora had had two children with journalist, Griffin Barry. She ran the Beacon Hill school on her own until World War II.

After the war, Dora was an advocate of the peace movement and was one of the founder members of the CND, in which she joined with other prominent leftists (Bertrand Russell, J.B Priestly, Michael Foot, Victor Gollancz etc) in campaigning for worldwide nuclear disarmament.