S.P.G.B. Lecture List For August. (1913)

Party News from the August 1913 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

Once again, I don't have enough room in the label section to include all the listed speakers, so some brief information on some of the speakers missing from the sidebar.

• C. Elliott was a member of the Tooting Branch, originally joining the SPGB in September 1909. There is no record of when they lapsed their membership.
• F. J. Rourke was a member of the Tottenham Branch, originally joining the SPGB in June 1909. Their membership was lapsed in February 1914. ("Moved away".)
• H. Joy was a member of the Tooting Branch.
  William Lewington was a member of the Tottenham Branch, originally joining the SPGB in March 1907. He resigned from the SPGB but no date is given for his resignation.
  C. Gatter is possibly Alfred G. Gatter, who was a member of Stoke Newington Branch. They originally joined the SPGB in February 1910, and their membership was lapsed in April 1919.
  A. L. Cox was a member of Islington Branch.
  B. Seach was probably G. Seach, who originally joined Hackney Branch of the SPGB in September 1912. His obituary appeared in the December 1932 issue of the Socialist Standard.

S.P.G.B. Lecture List For December. (London District.) (1912)

Party News from the December 1912 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

Once again, I don't have enough room in the label section to include all the listed speakers, so some brief information on some of the speakers missing from the sidebar.

• C. Elliott was a member of the Tooting Branch, originally joining the SPGB in September 1909. There is no record of when they lapsed their membership.
• F. J. Rourke was a member of the Tottenham Branch, originally joining the SPGB in June 1909. Their membership was lapsed in February 1914. ("Moved away".)
• F. Stearn was a member of the Tottenham Branch. There were actually two 'F. Stearn's in the branch at the time - possibly father and son - so I don't know which one was a listed speaker for this month.
• H. Joy was a member of the Tooting Branch.
• William Lewington was a member of the Tottenham Branch, originally joining the SPGB in March 1907. He resigned from the SPGB but no date is given for his resignation.
• J.M. Wray was a member of the Wood Green Branch, originally joining the SPGB in May 1909. He resigned from the SPGB in June 1924.

A few of the names featured in the lecture list are not listed in the early membership records, This could be explained away in two ways: 1) Further confirmation that the membership records to hand are incomplete. 2) A number of SPGB members were operating under pseudonyms in their visible party activity because of the threat of blacklisting.

S.P.G.B. Lecture List For August. (1914)

Party News from the August 1914 issue of the Socialist Standard

S.P.G.B. Lecture List, For July. (1914)

Party News from the July 1914 issue of the Socialist Standard

S.P.G.B. Lecture List For December. (1914)

Party News from the December 1914 issue of the Socialist Standard

S.P.G.B. Lecture List For November. (1914)

Party News from the November 1914 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

'F. Vickers' was Frank Vickers. Harry Young ('Horatio') mentions him in a February 1976 issue of the Socialist Standard. Vickers was one of a handful of SPGBers who went directly over to the Communist Party after the war. 'B. Young' was Byron Young. From a family of SPGBers, his father had been a member of the SDF.  His brother, Percy, was also a longstanding SPGBer. (His parents must have loved their poetry.) A prolific outdoor speaker for the Party, he emigrated to Australia after WW1. He is mentioned briefly in the Socialist Standard in his brother's obituary and his nephew's obituary.

S.P.G.B. Lecture List For April. (1913)

Party News from the April 1913 issue of the Socialist Standard

Walthamstow Reports. (1914)

Party News from the July 1914 issue of the Socialist Standard

The forthcoming season holds great hopes for the Socialist Party in this locality, and the resumption of outdoor propaganda meetings has called forth all the enthusiasm of the branch membership.

As is inevitable in a district where there are two pseudo-Socialist organisations, we have been afforded a considerable number of opportunities to attack the enemy: opportunities that have been taken advantage of, as will be seen.

As the local District Council Elections took place recently the B.S.P. put up two candidates for the Higham Hill Ward in the persons of Messrs. Ramsey and Friedberg.

They placarded the neighbourhood with "Daily Herald” posters bearing the appeal: "Vote for Friedberg and Ramsey,” and there was a special edition of the “Daily Herald” published, called "The Walthamstow Election Number.”

In support of their nominee’s candidature, the B S.P. held meetings, and at those held at Higham Hill Road, at question time they manifested the fact that they wished the members of the Socialist Party anywhere but there.

On the eve of the poll their speaker was Jack Jones of South West Ham; they also had on their platform, Mr. Ellis of the I.L.P., from Buckhurst Hill.

At question-time we put our questions and our Comrade B. Young asked for their platform to oppose, which request was, as usual, refused;. and further questioning culminated in their chairman losing his temper and hurling at our Comrade Young the threat to "come down and twist his neck.”

This threat was, of course, as idle and worthless as their "reply” to the questions of the members of this party. The said reply invariably being: "I was in the Socialist movement before you were born, and I know more about economics than any member of your party.”

"Simply this and nothing more.”

This "reply” and their refusal of their platform to our Comrade Young, are eloquent testimony to their courage and their confidence in their case.

That other organisation of political tricksters and fools (it is difficult to tell which preponderate), the Independent Labour Party, happened to choose the same evening and spot (Hoe Street Station) for holding week-night meetings as had this Branch, so that on May 6th we had to conduct our meeting in opposition to the LL.P.

However, Comrade B. Young addressed the larger of the two crowds on our behalf, and on Wednesday, May 13th, a comrade bringing the platform very early, secured the foremost pitch.

On his arrival, Mr. Peel, of the I.L.P., became so chagrined at this that after hurling a string of epithets such as “scum,” "blackguard,” and "slanderer ” at our comrade, he threatened to horsewhip him.

This "gentleman,” along with his crony, Campbell, manifested by this means, and by his abuse of the Socialist Party when any of its members question them, the rottenness of their case and the weakness of their position.

Our speaker again proved too good for the I.L.P.’s speaker, a leather-tongued individual who said he was proud of West Ham (notwithstanding its filth) because it bad three Socialist (!) Councillors.

We had a large and attentive audience, whilst the I.L.P’er addressed a meeting of their local branch.

We are also giving the Anti-Socialist Union’s speakers a warm time, counteracting, by questions and interpolations, the effect of the rubbish they trot out.

Boys! we are fighting a winning fight, so see that the “promise of spring” is fulfilled. Gird up your loins and have at them!

Dermot.

Obituary: Percy Young (1956)

Obituary from the September 1956 issue of the Socialist Standard

Percy Young died on the 12th of August, after being ill for a little while.

His name never appeared in the Socialist Standard; he never spoke in public or wrote articles, or was an officer of a Branch. But be joined the Socialist Party in 1906, and with his death a link with the beginnings of the Socialist movement has been broken.

He was a brush-maker: not a factory operative, but a practitioner of a craft which has almost died. He made his brushes in the little shop off Walthamstow High Street and sold them on a stall in the market; on fine afternoons, with the shop door open, you could see him sitting with his twine and his can of pitch and watch his hands working with the deftness of a lifetime’s use.

His father was a brush-maker too. His father belonged to the Social-Democratic Federation, from which the Party sprang; he had a shop in the High Street, and “kept away custom” by having copies of “Justice” fastened to the window. And there were others in the family. Percy’s brother, Byron, was a prolific outdoor speaker for Socialism—a Liberal candidate threatened to horsewhip him once—until he went to Australia in 1920.

He had seen many changes: the decline of his own craft, for example. Last Christmas he was given a copy of "The Day Is Coming,” and sat reading it half the night because it describes Mile End Waste at the end of the 19th century—stalls, quack doctors, cheap merchandise and S.D.F. speakers. He remembered it: used to go there as a boy to help his father sell brushes.

There must be many who knew him by sight but never by name: a little bird-like man with a little white moustache, always with a cap which he raised when he spoke to a lady. He had known hard times, and was always concerned for others’ welfare. He gave generously to Party funds whenever he could, and loved to listen to a Party' speaker re-affirming the things he had held to and done his best for all his life. He had humour, too: a quiet mirthful chuckle which gave him an unexpected elf-like look.

We are sad that Percy has gone; he, like the times and the people with whom he was a link, will be remembered continually.

R. C.

Obituary: A. Young (1971)

Obituary from the January 1971 issue of the Socialist Standard

We have learned of the death recently of Albert Young, of Walthamstow, at the age of 64. Comrade Young represented a remarkable association with the socialist movement. His grandfather was an active member of the Social-Democratic Federation. His father, Percy, and his uncle, Byron Young, both joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain about 1906. Byron was a well-known speaker for the Party for several years before he emigrated to Australia in the nineteen-twenties, and Percy remained a member since 1945, first in the old Leyton Branch and then in Hackney.

A lively, forceful person, Albert Young kept a stall in a London market (the family were craftsmen brushmakers). He was always anxious to expound and discuss socialism, and there must be many people who remember chance meetings with him in art galleries or on trains, and the comments on society thrown out as he sold things from his stall. His special interest outside the Party was in art; he was a talented amateur painter, and went out in the country whenever possible to find subjects for landscapes. In 1968 he had a serious operation, and was able to go out very little thereafter.

Our condolences go to his family. Their socialist tradition is carried on by Albert's son, who is a member of the Party—the fourth generation.