ROBERT BLATCHFORD

'Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford', (March 17 1851 – December 17 1943), was a socialist campaigner and author in the United Kingdom. Born in Maidstone, England, he joined the army at an early age and rose to become a sergeant major. On leaving in 1878, he became a journalist, and later said that it was his experiences in journalism which converted him to socialism.
In 1890, Blatchford founded the Manchester branch of the Fabian Society, and then he launched a weekly newspaper, ''The Clarion'' in 1891. In 1893 he published some of his articles on socialism as the book, ''Merrie England''. This influential work was largely inspired by William Morris.
Over two million copies of this ‘plain mans’ guide’ to socialism were sold over the following ten years, many at football matches and other public events. The book’s sales reflect the extraordinary dynamism of Blatchford’s ‘Clarion Movement’. Its numerous choirs and cycling clubs, socialist scouts and Glee Clubs are a reminder that British socialism at the start of the last century placed a distinctive emphasis on convivial organisation.
He saw his work as moralist in nature, and declared his own religion of determinism, campaigning against Christianity. Suspicious of parliamentary politics, he supported the Independent Labour Party for a short while, but threw his weight behind local groups associated with his paper. These groups varied from social clubs to choirs and Scout groups, and in 1900, he formed the Clarion Fellowship in an effort to unify and supplement them. Central to the Clarion movement were the Clarion cycling clubs who, often accompanied by the "Clarion Van", would travel the country distributing socialist literature and holding mass meetings. Robert Tressell's classic socialist novel ''The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'' contains a detailed account based on a meeting Tressell saw which was organised by the Clarion's cycling scouts.
The Clarion movement also gave support to many of the industrial disputes at this time, including the famous three year lockout of the slateworkers of the Penrhyn slate quarry in North Wales, with the Clarion collecting £1500 to support the people of Bethesda.
In 1902, Blatchford published a new book, ''Britain for the British'', which aimed more at exciting the self-interest of the working class, and was intended to be more practical than ''Merrie England''. His determinism became more clearly defined as he moved from attacking the Bible to attacking the concept of free will. In 1904, he wrote ''Not Guilty: A Defence of the Bottom Dog'', illustrating his view that the poorest in society were in their position as a result of heredity and their environment, and had no control over their actions.
Blatchford came to concentrate on his campaign against religion at the expense of all other activity. Although still a prominent figure around ''The Clarion'', his socialism waned. A supporter of the British government during the Second Boer War, in order to support the First World War, he joined the Socialist National Defence League, and then in 1924 moved to support the Conservative Party.
His grave is in Horsham.

Contents

Further reading

Books by Blatchford

Books about Blatchford

External links

Further reading

Books by Blatchford

These include:

★ ''The Nunquam Papers'' (from the ''Sunday Chronicle'') Edward Hulton and Co., 1891

★ ''Fantasias'' John Heywood, Manchester, 1892

★ ''Merrie England'' Clarion Office, Walter Scott, 1893 (reprinted New York, N.Y., Monthly Review Press, 1966)

★ ''The Nunquam Papers'' (from the ''The Clarion'') Clarion Newspaper, 1895)

★ ''A Bohemian Girl'' (McGinnis, P., pseudonym), London, 1898, Clarion Newspapers Co., Walter Scott, Ltd.

★ ''Dismal England'', London, Clarion Press, May 1899

★ ''My Favourite Books'' The Clarion Office, (also Chesworth, 1900)

★ ''God and my Neighbour'' Clarion Press, 1903, also 1906

★ ''Not Guilty: A Defence of the Bottom Dog'' Clarion Press, 1906

★ ''The Dolly Ballads'' (Illustrated by Frank Chesworth) Clarion Press, 1907, also The Utopia Press Limited, (also Odhams Press, 1950)

★ ''My Life in the Army'', London, Clarion Press, 1910

★ ''As I Lay A-Thinking: Some Memories and Reflections of an Ancient and Quiet Watchman'' Hodder & Stoughton, London, (1926)

★ ''A Book About Books'', London, Clarion Press, 1903

★ ''Britain for the British'', London, Clarion Press, 1902

★ ''Essays of To-Day and Yesterday'', London, George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd., 1927

★ ''General Von Sneak'', London, Hodder & Stoughton, Publishers, n.d.

★ ''Julie A Study of a Girl by a Man'', London, Clarion Press, n.d.

★ ''My Eighty Years'', Great Britain, Cassell & Company Limited. 1931

★ ''My Favourite Books'', London, Clarion Press, 1901

★ ''Saki’s Bowl'', London, Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, 1928

★ ''Stunts'', London, Clarion Press, n.d.

★ ''Tales for the Marines'', London, Clarion Newspaper Co., Ltd., 1901

★ ''The Sorcery Shop: An Impossible Romance'', London, Clarion Press, 1907

★ ''The War That Was Foretold: Germany and England'', Reprinted from “The Daily Mail” of 1909

★ ''What’s All This?'', London, George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1940

★ ''Where Are the Dead'', London, Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1928 [Contains a chapter by Blatchford, “Secrets of Life and Love.”]

Books about Blatchford

★ Anon ''The Clarion Van at Norton: Willie Wright's report to Julia Dawson'' reprinted from ''The Clarion'', Sheffield, 1898

★ Lyons, Neil ''Robert Blatchford'' Clarion Press, 1910

★ Jones, Leslie S. A. ''Robert Blatchford and the Clarion'' Hyde Park Pamphlets Number Nine, 1986

★ Peacock, Arthur ''Yours Fraternally'' Pendulum Publications, 1945

★ Suthers R. B. and Beswick H. ''The Clarion Birthday Book'' Clarion Press, 1951

★ Thompson, Alex M. ''Here I Lie'' George Routledge & Sons, 1937

★ Thompson, Laurence ''Robert Blatchford: Portrait of an Englishman'' Victor Gollancz, London, 1951 238 pp.

★ Williamson, Robert ''Robert Blatchford Calendar'' Frank Palmer 1912

External links

★

★ Spartacus on Blatchford

★ The Clarion Movement 1891-1914 (from WCML site)

★ A slightly reworked version of the WCML article which includes the lyrics for the anthem of the Clarion cyclists 'The song of the Clarion Scouts.'

★ 'The good old summer time.' Tressell's account of a meeting held by The Clarion Cycling Scouts

★ Robert Blatchford: Neglected Socialist