Cyril
Joad, the son of a school inspector, was born in Durham on 12th August,
1891. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford,
he worked as a civil servant at the Board of Trade (1914-30) before
becoming head of the philosophy department at Birkbeck
College in London.
He
wrote several books including Introduction to Modern
Philosophy (1924), Matter, Life
and Value (1929), Guide to Philosophy
(1936) and Guide to the Philosophy of Morals
and Politics (1938).
Joad
was a supporter of the Popular
Front government
in Spain during the Spanish
Civil War.
He joined with Emma Goldman, Rebecca
West, Sybil Thorndyke, Fenner
Brockway and
C. E. M. Joad to establish the Committee to
Aid Homeless Spanish Women and Children.
In
1941 Joad joined the BBC radio programme The
Brains Trust. The programme was a great success and Joad
became a well-known public figure. His favourite expression, "It
depends what you mean by..." became a popular catch-phrase.
On
12th April 1948, Joad was convicted of "unlawfully travelling
on the railway without having previously paid
his fare and with intent to avoid payment." As a result he was
sacked from The Brains Trust team. Cyril
Joad died
of cancer in 1953.
(1)
Tom
Hopkinson,
Of
This Our Time (1982)
C. E. M. Joad, the popular
philosopher, was an engaging figure, good-natured and a fluent conversationalist.
Joad was at the height of his fame as a member of the 'Brains Trust'
- probably the most celebrated of all radio programmes at a time when
there was virtually no television - but had found himself in trouble
for persistently travelling without a railway ticket. A less ebullient
spirit would have been dampened by so conspicuous a humiliation and
many public figures would probably have retired altogether into private
life. But not so Joad. When a fellow guest at the dinner remarked
that he had to go down to Brighton for something or other next weekend,
Joad from the far end of the table piped up in his peculiar high-pitched
voice: 'If you are travelling to Brighton, let me tell you, you have
no need to book any further than Three Bridges. When you get there,
you must hop out and nip across the line."
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