The Lord Brockway | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Brockway, circa 1910–1915. | |
| General Secretary of the Independent Labour Party | |
| In office 1933–1939 | |
| Preceded by | John Paton |
| Succeeded by | John McNair |
| Chairman of the Independent Labour Party | |
| In office 1931–1933 | |
| Preceded by | James Maxton |
| Succeeded by | James Maxton |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 17 December 1964 – 28 April 1988 Life Peerage | |
| Member of Parliament forEton and Slough | |
| In office 23 February 1950 – 25 September 1964 | |
| Preceded by | Benn Levy |
| Succeeded by | Anthony Meyer |
| Member of Parliament forLeyton East | |
| In office 30 May 1929 – 7 October 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Ernest Edward Alexander |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Mills |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Archibald Fenner Brockway (1888-11-01)1 November 1888 Calcutta,British India |
| Died | 28 April 1988(1988-04-28) (aged 99) |
| Political party | Independent Labour Party |
| Other political affiliations | Labour Party |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (1 November 1888 – 28 April 1988) was a Britishsocialist politician,humanist campaigner andanti-war activist.
Brockway was born to Rev. William George Brockway and Frances Elizabeth Abbey inCalcutta,British India.[1] He developed an interest in politics while attending the School for the Sons of Missionaries, then inBlackheath, London (nowEltham College), from 1897 to 1905. In 1908, Brockway became avegetarian.[2] Several decades later, during a debate in a House of Lords onanimal cruelty, he said: "I am a vegetarian and I have been so for 70 years. On the whole, I think, physically I am a pretty good advertisement for that practice."[3]
After leaving school, he worked as a journalist for newspapers and journals includingThe Quiver, theDaily News and theChristian Commonwealth. In 1907, Brockway joined theIndependent Labour Party (ILP) and was a regular visitor to theFabian Society. He was appointed editor of theLabour Leader (the newspaper of the ILP, later called theNew Leader) and was, by 1913, a committedpacifist. He opposed sending troops to France during theFirst World War and, through his position as editor of theLabour Leader, was outspoken in his views about the conflict.
On 12 November 1914, he published an appeal for men and women of the military age to join him in forming theNo-Conscription Fellowship to campaign against the possibility of the government attempting to introduceconscription inBritain. Brockway acknowledged his wife,Lilla Brockway, had the foresight "that those who intended to refuse military service should band themselves together". Lilla acted as provisional secretary at their cottage in Derbyshire until the beginning of 1915, when the membership had grown so large that it had become necessary to open an office in London.[4] In London,Catherine Marshall became the Fellowship's political secretary since she was adept at political strategy as the Parliamentary Secretary of theNational Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.[4] The No-Conscription Fellowship produced a weekly newspaper,The Tribunal, which was suppressed; through the activity ofJoan Beauchamp it continued production, although her refusal to divulge the name of the printer caused her to be charged with contempt of court and held in custody for 10 days.[4] The offices of theLabour Leader were raided in August 1915 and Brockway was charged with publishingseditious material. He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted in court. In 1916 Brockway was again arrested, this time for distributing anti-conscription leaflets. He was fined, and after refusing to pay the fine, was sent toPentonville Prison for two months.[5]
Shortly after his release, Brockway was arrested for a third time for his refusal to be conscripted, after being denied recognition as aconscientious objector. He was handed over to the Army and court-martialled for disobeying orders. As if atraitor, he was held for a night in theTower of London, in a dungeon underChester Castle and inWalton Prison, Liverpool, where he edited an unofficial newspaper, theWalton Leader, for conscientious objectors in the prison. This led to his being disciplined, which in turn led to a 10-day prison strike by conscientious objectors before he was transferred toLincoln Jail, where he spent some time in solitary confinement until finally released in 1919. In October 1950 he revisited the jail withÉamon de Valera, theIrish statesman.[6]
Following his release, Brockway became an active member of theIndia League, which advocated Indian independence. He became secretary of the ILP in 1923 and later its chairman. Years later, the Government of India honoured him with the third highest civilian award of thePadma Bhushan in 1989.[7]
Brockway stood for Parliament several times, including atLancaster in1922 and againstWinston Churchill atWestminster Abbey in a1924 by-election. In 1926, he became the first chairperson ofWar Resisters' International, serving in this post until 1934.[5] Brockway was a member of theLeague against Imperialism created in Brussels in 1927.
As the Nazi Party was getting more and more popular support, Brockway arrived in Poland after being invited there by The Independent Socialist Party of Poland, with Joseph Krok as one of its leaders. Brockway tried to warn the public of the Nazi threat, but he was instructed by the British Embassy in Warsaw NOT to mention "the minority issue" of Poland. Later Brockway met with Antonov Obisenko, USSR ambassador to Poland.[8]
At the1929 general election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) forLeyton East as aLabour Party candidate. He polled 11,111 votes and, immediately after the election, theLiberal candidate announced that Brockway had converted him tosocialism. His convictions brought him into difficulties with the Labour Party. He was also outspoken in Parliament, and was once "named" (suspended) by the Speaker while demanding a debate on India atPrime Minister's Questions.[9][10]
In1931 Brockway lost his seat and the following year he disaffiliated from the Labour Party along with the rest of the ILP. He stood unsuccessfully for the ILP in the1934 Upton by-election (Upton was a division of West Ham), placed a remote third with only a 3.5% share of the votes cast, and inNorwich in the1935 election. He also wrote a book on the arms trade,The Bloody Traffic, published byGollancz Ltd in 1934. According to David Howell, after 1932 Brockway "sought to articulate a socialism distinct from the pragmatism of Labour and theStalinism of theCommunist Party".[11]
In Brockway's science fiction novel,Purple Plague (1935), a sea liner is quarantined for a decade as a result of a plague. An egalitarian society emerges.[12]
Despite Brockway's previous pacifist commitment, he resigned fromWar Resisters' International, explaining:
If I were in Spain at this moment I should be fighting with the workers against the Fascists forces. I believe it to be the correct course to demand that the workers shall be provided with the arms which are being sent so freely by the Fascist powers to their enemies. I appreciate the attitude of the pacifists in Spain who, whilst wishing the workers success, feel that they must express their support in constructive social service alone. My difficulty about that attitude is that if anyone wishes the workers to be triumphant he cannot, in my view, refrain from doing whatever is necessary to enable that triumph to take place.[13]
He assisted in the recruitment of British volunteers to fight the fascist forces ofFrancisco Franco in Spain through theILP Contingent. He sailed to Calais in February 1937 and was believed to have been destined for Spain.[14] Among those who went to Spain was Eric Blair (better known asGeorge Orwell), and Brockway wrote a letter of recommendation for Blair to present to the ILP representatives inBarcelona. Following theSpanish Civil War, Brockway advocated public understanding of the conflict. He wrote a number of articles about the conflict and was influential in getting Orwell'sHomage to Catalonia published.[15]
Notwithstanding his support for British participation in theSecond World War, Brockway served as chair of the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors throughout the war, and continued to serve as chair until his death.[16] He also sought to re-enter Parliament, unsuccessfully contesting wartime by-elections for the ILP at Lancasterin 1941 andCardiff Eastin 1942.[17]
In May 1946, Brockway toured theBritish occupation zone in Germany as an accredited war correspondent, meeting German socialists and reporting on living conditions there; he wrote about the visit inGerman Diary, published by theLeft Book Club.[18]
Brockway appeared inHitler's Black Book that contained a list of British subjects and residents who would have been subject to arrest had the Nazis successfully invaded the UK.[19] The contents of the book were not publicly known until after the Second World War.
Brockway later rejoined the Labour Party. After the1950 general election he returned to theHouse of Commons, following an absence of more than 18 years, as the MP forEton and Slough.
On 28 March 1950, he forced a debate in the House of Commons on the decision by the Labour government of the UK to banishSeretse Khama from his homeland, the British protectorate which became Botswana. The British government also withheld recognition of Khama as the Chief of the Bamangwato people, because he had married an Englishwoman. The marriage was an affront to theapartheid South African minority government underD. F. Malan, which, it became very clear, the UK government wished to appease.[20]
In 1951, Brockway was one of the four founders of the charityWar on Want, which fights global poverty. He helped establish the Congress of Peoples Against Imperialism (est. 1945), an organisation he continued to work with throughout the 1950s.[21] His activities there included protesting against the response of the government to theMau Mau Uprising in the BritishKenya Colony.[22] In this area, he was a part of the largerMovement for Colonial Freedom. From the late 1950s he regularly proposed legislation in Parliament to banracial discrimination, only to be defeated each time. He strongly opposed the use or possession ofnuclear weapons by any nation and was a founding member of theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[23]
On 18 July 1961, Brockway was chosen bySpeakerHarry Hylton-Foster to ask the first question at the very firstPrime Minister's Questions in the current format.[24]
Brockway was a prominent member of theBritish Humanist Association andSouth Place Ethical Society where he became an Appointed Lecturer during the 1960s.[25] He gave the 1986 Conway Memorial Lecture on 21 May 1986. The Lecture was titledM D Conway: His Life and Message For Today and was chaired byMichael Foot.[26] The Brockway Room atConway Hall in London is named after him.
Former KGB officerOleg Gordievsky, who defected to the UK in 1985, alleged that Brockway had been a "confidential contact" of theKGB and had "accepted a great deal of hospitality from Soviet intelligence".[27]
Brockway narrowly lost his seat in the House of Commons at the1964 election, despite the national swing to Labour at that election, as he was portrayed by his opponents as being the principal cause of immigrants from the West Indies settling in Slough.[28] He subsequently was created alife peer on 17 December 1964, taking the titleBaron Brockway,of Eton and of Slough in theCounty of Buckingham,[29] and took a seat in theHouse of Lords.
Brockway continued to campaign for world peace and was for several years the chairman of theMovement for Colonial Freedom. Other important posts held by him include the Presidency of theBritish Council for Peace in Vietnam, and membership of the Advisory Council of theBritish Humanist Association.[30] The World Disarmament Campaign was founded by Brockway in 1979, together withPhilip Noel-Baker, to work for the implementation of the policies agreed at the 1978 Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly.[31]
Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Brockway, in April 1980, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titledOral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.[32] Brockway discusses his introduction to socialism, throughKeir Hardie, and his interest inwomen's suffrage.
Brockway died on 28 April 1988, aged 99. He was some six months shy of his centenary.[15] Brockway had been twice married: firstly in 1914 (divorced 1945) to Lilla, daughter of the Rev. W. Harvey-Smith; secondly in 1946 to Edith Violet King. By his first marriage, he had four daughters, and by his second, he had a son.[33][34]
While he was in prison, Brockway met the prominent peace activistStephen Henry Hobhouse, and in 1922 they co-authoredEnglish prisons to-day: being the report of the Prison system enquiry committee, a devastating critique of the English prison system which resulted in a wave of prison reform that has continued to this day.[35] Brockway wrote more than twenty other books on politics and four volumes of autobiography.[15][36][37]
Brockway's life and legacy are celebrated in his old constituency ofSlough with the now annualFennerFest, a community arts and culture festival.
A statue of Brockway stands at the entrance toRed Lion Square Park inHolborn, London; it was funded by many involved in the Commonwealth independence movements he supported and was expected to be unveiled after his death. However, he achieved such longevity that it was likely that the original Planning Permission to erect it would run out, causing problems to renew the process. It was decided to ask him to unveil it, he being one of the few private individuals, as opposed to Heads of State to do so. It was damaged (an arm was broken off) by a falling tree in theGreat Storm of 1987. The refurbished and insured statue was installed shortly after his death.
A close in the town of Newport in southern Wales is named after him.
Lord BROCKWAY: My Lords, perhaps I should begin by declaring an interest. I am a vegetarian and I have been so for 70 years...
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forEast Leyton 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forEton and Slough 1950–1964 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of theIndependent Labour Party 1931–1933 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | General Secretary of theIndependent Labour Party 1933–1939 | Succeeded by |
| Non-profit organization positions | ||
| Preceded by New position | Chair ofWar Resisters' International 1926–1934 | Succeeded by |
| Media offices | ||
| Preceded by | Editor of theLabour Leader 1912–1916 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Editor of theNew Leader 1926–1929 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Editor of theNew Leader 1931–1946 | Succeeded by |
