Letter to the Editors from the November 1979 issue of the Socialist Standard
Pioneer
The “mystery” of the Party’s first Branch in Scotland, Fraserburgh (Socialist Standard, September) may be solved by the fact that a vigorous campaign was carried on between 1900-1908 in that area. This was the work of James Leatham (1865-1945), by trade a printer but most of his life a speaker and writer on behalf of Socialism. A biography Portrait of a Socialist Pioneer (People’s Press, Aberdeen) has been written by Bob Duncan, a history teacher. Leatham published the first Socialist journal in Scotland The Workers’ Herald. Later he printed and edited the Gateway in Yorkshire as well as Turiff (Scotland).
Leatham belonged to the Social Democratic Federation, I believe. He invited Keir Hardie, anarchist Peter Kropotkin and his hero, William Morris, to speak in Aberdeen where he was born and brought up. Due to his speeches and activities he was sacked with winter coming and a wife and bairn to keep. Later he set up a printer’s business in Aberdeen, where he produced the Workers’ Herald in 1891.
An amazing man indeed!
John Keith (Aberdeen)
Blogger's Note:
As mentioned in the September 1979 article cited above, the Fraserburgh branch of the SPGB was listed in the Socialist Standard from August 1910 until May 1911. There is no James Leatham listed in the early Party membership records, but here is a list of the six members who were recorded as members of the Fraserburgh branch:
- William Anderson
- S. Ford
- William Lawrence
- A. Macdonald
- William Noble
- J. A. Noble
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