Early Life
Zilliacus was born in Kobe, Japan, the son of exiled Finnish-nationalist Konrad Viktor (Konni) Zilliacus (1855–1924) and American-born Lilian McLaurin Grafe (1873–1938). He travelled the world with his parents until settling at Bedales School in Hampshire in 1909, where he became friends with Josiah Clement Wedgwood's sons. He went on to Yale University in the USA, graduating first in his class in 1915.
During World War I, he applied to the British Royal Flying Corps but was denied for physical reasons. Instead, he found work as an orderly for a French medical unit near the front lines. Soon invalided out of the medical corps, Zilliacus returned to Britain and joined the Union of Democratic Control and worked for the Liberal Party MPs Noel Buxton and Norman Angell. He travelled with Wedgwood to Russia, where he developed a sympathy for the October Revolution, and leaked details of Britain's counter-revolutionary activities to the press. In 1919, he joined the British Labour Party, newly married to Eugenia Nowicka with Stella Zilliacus born.
Read more about this topic: Konni Zilliacus
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