Ruth Speirs was born in Latvia but during the Second World War was forced to leave her home and become a refugee. She met and married the academic John Speirs who was working for the British Council in the English department of the University of Cairo. Their home became a centre for the many expatriate servicemen in the city interested in writing and discussing poetry. Several publications were produced by the university and the British Institute and Ruth Speirs translated from the German several poems by Rilke which were published in the periodical Personal Landscape in 1944.
After the war John Speirs returned to England with his wife to live in London and work in the Univertsity of Exeter. Ruth continued to publish translations of poetry from both German and Latvian. After John died in 1979 she had some financial difficulties but continued to find enough work to live on. Ruth Speirs died in 2000.
From the guide to the Papers of Ruth Speirs, 1942-1983, (Reading University: Special Collections Services)
