Two stalwarts (1964)

From the September 1964 issue of the Socialist Standard

We are a party without a personality cult, nor with any possibility of ever developing one. It is not a rule, written or unwritten, but a logical extension of our Socialist principles, which makes us frown upon any elaboration of our members as individuals.

Dead comrades are treated less inflexibly; an obituary note in the Socialist Standard, perhaps on special occasions a remembrance of those who were outstanding by their labours for Socialism.

The rest is effacement.

But as the sixtieth anniversary of our journal is so very special an event, perhaps we may be allowed to bend our customs, just a little. And there is no one for whom it is more apt to do this than the two men who for so long were inseparable from this paper.

We mean--who else?—Comrades Hardy and McClatchie.

Regular readers will know them well enough through their articles, Hardy’s over the signature H. and McClatchie over Gilmac. Perhaps not so well known is the work which they once did behind the scenes the painstaking editing, the advice to contributors, the enthusiasm which carried them through decades of service on the old Editorial Committee.

Hardy and Gilmac saw the Socialist Standard through some perilous times. They made their own imprint on the journal’s history and its survival is something of a monument to them. They finally left the Editorial Committee in 1959; somebody asked them how long they had served—was it twenty, thirty, forty years? Neither of them could remember.

Both are still outstanding for their energy. Gilmac, now our Head Office assistant, busies himself with a multitude of invaluable jobs. Hardy still drives himself, still seems to cram three times as much into a day as anybody else. Always close friends, they are also great walkers; only a few years back they left a man half their age purple faced on one of their strolls over the Seven Sisters. And if, on a Sunday morning in summer, you care to mingle with the hot and irritable trippers at Waterloo or Victoria, you may still come across Hardy, rucksack on his back, knocking off a crossword while he waits for the next train to the Downs.

The present Committee knew that the knowledge and experience of these two comrades would be invaluable in the preparation of this month’s Socialist Standard. Gilmac and Hardy did not hesitate when we asked them to come back on the committee for two or three months. Their contributions to this issue speak for themselves. We also owe them a debt for their other help and for their advice.

Yet even more than that we say thank you for their tireless work over the years. They must have met much bitterness and disappointment, but in dark days and bright they did not spare themselves in making sure that there would be a Socialist Standard for the present committee to inherit, and to stand up proudly to celebrate its sixtieth birthday.

Editorial Committee, September 1964