The Man Who Invented The Lock-On Protest - By Christopher Draper

 

The Curious Case of the Man who Invented the Lock-On Protest

by Christopher Draper

For more than a century lock-on protests have proved an effective non-violent way of publicising and challenging injustice. That’s why the current government is so determined to imprison practitioners. Most people assume suffragettes came up with the idea but twenty years before they first chained themselves to railings a now forgotten anarchist invented and enthusiastically practiced the technique…

The Metropolitan Police were so struck by Robert Whittall Harding’s ingenuity that for many years his locks, chains and political manifesto were exhibited in Scotland Yard’s “Black Museum”. As a middle class, individualist, pacifist associate of Henry Seymour, Auberon Herbert and Albert Tarn, Harding was exceptional in his fearless law-breaking. Born in Peckham, south-east London to Henry Harding and his wife Mary Ann, Robert initially worked in his father’s Southwark Bridge Road timber yard. Although never wealthy and employed as a clerk for most of his life, Harding was fortunate enough to inherit a trust fund when his father died in October 1880. From his youth, Robert was a dissenter, active in the “Freethought” movement. Called as a witness in a September 1881 court case, Harding refused to swear on the bible, “on conscientious grounds”, but agreed to affirm. He briefly dabbled in business, partnering David Shea in a Southwark “Glass Works” enterprise but this was dissolved in August 1882, a few weeks before Robert married, in Brixton, Clarice Annie Madeline Jaques, an engineer’s daughter. They had no children of their own but soon after marriage adopted Irish orphan, Maude Whayman.

During 1886-7, when Harding was living in the East End and employed as an “engineer’s clerk”, he discovered anarchism through his involvement with the National Secular Society (NSS) which regularly hosted political dissidents at its lecture halls. Proclaiming himself a devotee of “the Quaker belief in, “Resist not evil but overcome evil with good””, every Saturday night over the summer of 1887 he lectured outside Limehouse Town Hall on, “Why I am an Anarchist”. Disturbed by the plight of “the Chicago Anarchists”, in October he unsuccessfully appealed to H A Barker, Secretary of the Socialist League, to be included as a speaker at the SL’s forthcoming London rally for the men’s release. Robert appreciated the irony of his request as he was certainly no socialist. His brand of ethical anarchism emphasised individual liberty and rejected compulsory socialisation of private property. The following month he again explained, “Why I am an Anarchist”, to an audience at the Secular Hall, Newington Green Road followed by an identical address delivered at the NSS Hall, Turnpike Lane. From these quiet beginnings Harding burst into public prominence “in defence of free speech” on Sunday 4 December 1887 with an imaginative response to police persecution of street corner agitators. The press provided extensive coverage of this historic event;

“Shortly before two o’clock an extraordinary scene took place in St Martin’s Lane. An apparently respectably dressed man of about 30 years of age was seen carrying several yards of iron chain and proceeded to the front of St Martin’s Vestry Hall, which is protected by some strong iron palings. The man was Robert Harding, a clerk, residing at 42, Gough Street, Poplar and who described himself as a “peaceful anarchist and humanitarian”. He was accompanied by a friend who set to work in a very businesslike way and chained Harding to the palings. The chain was passed over his shoulders, down his middle and around his legs, and finally the ends were passed round Harding’s hands and locked. These singular proceedings for a time only attracted the attention of a few passers-by but a number of the E Division police constables came up and asked the meaning of what was going on, “Surely you are out of your mind” said Sergeant 11E. “Oh no, I’m not”, said Harding; “I came here from a sense of duty to protest against the way the rights of Englishmen are taken away. I have done this to illustrate how Englishmen are chained. My object is to give you some idea of the principle of peaceful anarchism”. The police sergeant told Harding that he was obstructing the roadway and he would have to remove him. “That you may do”, replied Harding, “if you can”. The crowd were much amused at the difficult position in which the police found themselves, for on their endeavouring to remove the chains they found they were most firmly fastened. The sergeant shook them and brought from Harding the observation, “Your object is to hurt me” and this caused a few of the bystanders to shout, “Don’t hurt him.” Harding seeing he had some few sympathisers in the crowd said he particularly asked the attention of those present to what was going on. The police continued their efforts to try and sever Harding’s chains and after a short time forced one part of the chain over the top of the palings, whereupon Harding said as the police had succeeded in doing this he would undo the other part; and the key was searched for with which to open the lock. Harding said he would make a speech while the police were endeavouring to release him. He said Government was tyranny and popular Government was no less a tyranny than any other Government. The police told him he must desist from speaking and Harding answered that if the lady of the house to which the palings were attached told him to go away he would do so. That was a bye-way in which they were in and he asked the crowd to stand aside and let people pass. That lock was at last opened and the chains were removed from Harding who exclaimed, “Mind I don’t give in; understand that I am ready to die for free speech with a smile on my face.” Harding was then taken into custody by Sergeant E11 and Police Constable E342 and removed to Bow Street police station. Police constable E231 followed, carrying the chains and was accompanied by some of the crowd. Harding’s friend also went to the station, stating it was his intention to offer bail for him. The prisoner, when brought before a magistrate, was dismissed.”

Harding’s tactic worked. He publicised the free-speech cause, attracted the support of bystanders and readers and his prosecution was dismissed. The police got their revenge the following February when Harding repeated the stunt in Trafalgar Square, as Inspector Joseph Peters of A Division “illegally retained the chains, three locks and copies of Harding’s manifesto”. Magistrates then refused to instruct police to return Harding’s equipment which they triumphantly exhibited in their “Black Museum”.

Despite police persecution, fines and short periods of imprisonment Harding repeated similar street protest for years, with various innovations introduced along the way. Sometimes he wore boards bearing slogans, sometimes he distributed leaflets but always he amused onlookers and upset the police. The authorities attempted to lock him up as a lunatic but, “he was examined by a doctor who failed to find any signs of insanity and he was allowed to go”. He never bowed to authority and appearing once more in Bow Street Court in December 1888 “defendant entered the dock with his hat on his head and turning his back on the magistrate placed his right foot on the seat and faced the public in the court”. Refusing to comply with court etiquette Harding was forcibly removed from the dock. As the police gave evidence, “the defendant, with his face turned towards the public in court, was apparently engaged in reading a newspaper”. He never agreed to magistrates’ requests to go quietly and typically replied, “As soon as I am at liberty I shall hold a meeting”! Harding gave his last high profile demonstration outside Parliament in December 1893 when he was prosecuted by his old tormentor, Inspector Peters who, “deposed that the prisoner walked up and down in front of the House carrying cardboards, sandwich-fashion (produced). On one side was written “No coercion either by bomb throwing or majority voting”, and on the other “Stop the bomb shop at Woolwich and the other fools will stop their miserable tricks””. Harding denied obstruction but Mr Shiel, the magistrate was unimpressed, “It is not the place to parade with nonsense and tomfoolery of this sort…I will fine you 40s. or 14 days.”

Harding was a compelling and entertaining “itinerant street lecturer" who in 1888 produced a number of persuasive anarchist tracts for direct distribution and the following year contributed closely argued essays to Henry Seymour’s “Revolutionary Review”. One leaflet revealed “Mr Harding is in Politics a peaceful Anarchist; in Religion, a Humanitarian; on the Drink Question, a Teetotaler; and in the Food Reform Movement, a Vegetarian”. Harding regarded socialism as inherently forceful and became an outspoken critic. In 1893 he toured England on behalf of the “Anti-Compulsory Taxation League”, in August asking a South Shields Free Library audience, “Can we have Freedom under Socialism?” Whilst his prime target was state socialism he also sniped at the naïve optimism of anarchist-communists. He insisted the ethical dimension of politics mustn’t be displaced by mechanistic materialism. He feared the pursuit of equality could be gained at the cost of individual liberty. In Bradford, Sheffield, Leicester and Loughborough he argued “Individualism versus Socialism” with spirited socialist opponents but it was growing increasingly difficult to continue the debate within the British anarchist movement which had largely gone over to anarchist communism.” 

On Sunday 9 September 1894, Harding mounted the Deptford anarchist group’s soap box on the Broadway during an ILP election meeting, and proceeded to present the, “Fallacies of Voting - counteracting finely the rubbish that was being spouted at the vote-for-the-right-man-that-is-me meeting. Audience enthusiastic”! Harding’s activism declined with the nineteenth century but WWI revived his pacifist instincts and in June 1916 he lectured at the Southgate Road, Brotherhood Hall on “Hymns of Hate; or the Religion of Love” and the following month on “Spiritual Life from a Rationalist Point of View”. His lectures at the hall continued into 1918 and in December 1923 Freedom published his essay, “What is Anarchism and Why are we Anarchists?” By then Robert and Annie were living at and running a newsagents shop at 41, Elthorne Road, Upper Holloway. Robert moved round the corner to 19, Prospero Road after Annie died in 1934 and handed the shop over to their adopted daughter Maude who’d by then married gent’s hairdresser, Thomas Dayson. There was no obituary when Robert Harding died, aged 80, at Prospero Road on 9 September 1940, his unique contribution to pacifist tactics and libertarian ideas already forgotten.

In February 2019, after extensively researching Harding’s life I wondered if history might belatedly acknowledge his pioneering role by relocating his three padlocks, chains and manifesto from police custody to the “Peoples’ History Museum”, Manchester. As a first move I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police requesting copies of any documents they held relating to these historic artefacts. Initially the Met offered nothing but on appeal confirmed that, “We do have a very small entry confirming that the exhibits were in the museum” and provided a copy of this original catalogue entry card, “However, they are no longer in the collection and we have no record of when or how they were disposed of”!