(Northern Anarchist Lives – 6)
Christopher Draper
HERBERT
Stockton was one of Victorian
Manchester’s most effective preachers and Anarchy was his religion. After
converting his sister and brothers to what he called the 'One true faith' all
four teenagers led local Salvationists and constabulary a merry dance. Perhaps
his dad was inadvertently to blame for he was an embittered old soldier
employed as a prison warder at Strangeways where, in 1893, Bert was incarcerated
as a reward for his evangelism. Although Bert’s name occasionally crops up in
the biographies of others, until now his fascinating life story has remained
untold.
Bert’s dad,
William Stockton (1839-1914) served for seven years on St Helena as a Sapper with the Royal Engineers until, 'He received
a severe injury to his hand while employed on the Public Works on the 11th
February 1867. Having been accidentally caught in the machinery of a crane, three
of the fingers of his right hand were permanently injured.' An army Court of
Inquiry concluded he was no longer fit for service and awarded him a
non-residential 'Chelsea Pension'. Although he’d laboured as a bricklayer with
the Engineers, William was forced through invalidity to accept security work,
initially as a prison warder and subsequently as a 'safe deposit attendant'.
In 1869, William
met Liverpool-born Julia Farrar and the pair set up house together at 14
Armitage Street in the Ardwick district of Manchester where Bert was born on 15th
July 1870. Eleanor arrived the following year with Ernest (25.5.1874) and
William (19.5.1875) completing the family. The children attended Armitage
Street School before settling into careers: Herbert, mechanic; Eleanor,
tailoress; Ernest, engraver and William, carver-gilder. Aged eighteen Herbert was
the first to rebel and was soon assisting seasoned anarchist William Bailie, in
June 1889, establish a new speaking station at Harpurhey. Accompanied by Bailie
and Alf Barton, Herbert soon made a name for himself. At the beginning of
August Commonweal newspaper
presciently observed, 'Stockton has only
lately begun speaking but promises to develop into a good speaker.'
Over the
summer of 1889 Bert worked with Manchester
comrades in “assisting the cap makers – men, women and girls – to form a union
which is very much needed in this industry, where sweating is the order of the
day.” In the autumn, the Manchester group supported strikers at “Berry’s Blacking Works.” Bert and his Socialist League (SL) comrades also
attended the “Working Men’s Educational Club” at 122 Corporation Street where
members assembled every Tuesday at 8pm. 'The branch entertained Kropotkin at the club on November 7th,
when a most enjoyable evening was passed.' Three weeks later, 'William Morris lectured for the branch
on the Class Struggle. The lecture
was well received; brisk discussion followed; lecturer replied amid
enthusiastic applause.'
At the end
of 1889 the lease expired on the old clubrooms but in February 1890 Bert and
his mates announced ambitious plans:
'Suitable premises have now been secured
for the new Socialist Club. It is our aim to make it a centre for Socialist propaganda in Lancashire. A library, reading,
recreation and refreshment rooms will be some of its attractions. Aid is invited
from friends who can assist either with fittings, furniture, books or funds.
The Club, 60 Grosvenor Street, All Saints, is now open for members every
evening. Commonweal and other
literature is on sale.'
The following month, “on Monday 31st March Edward Carpenter lectured at the Club
on the Present and Future Society”,
but outdoor propaganda wasn’t forgotten. Every Sunday the branch lectured on
libertarian themes at Phillips Park gates at 11am and in Stevenson Square at
3pm and Herbert usually spoke at each venue.
On Sunday
June 15th, Herbert Stockton was a key speaker at 'a large and most
enthusiastic meeting' in Stevenson Square organised by the Branch 'to protest
against the Freedom of the City
being conferred on H M Stanley at
which the following resolution was unanimously passed:'
'That we, citizens of
Manchester, in mass meeting assembled, recognising that H M Stanley’s invasion of Central Africa has brought death and
destruction upon the natives and that the object of his mission is to
introduce into those regions the system of commercialism which means the
economic slavery of the workers of this country, the only benefit of which will
be to the speculating capitalists who can no longer make large profits out of
British labour hereby indignantly protest against the action of the City Council
in offering the freedom of our city and paying honour at our expense to this
modern hero of Christianity and Commercialism whose civilising agents have been
fire and murder, the elephant-rifle and the gallows…The meeting terminated by
singing the Marseillaise and giving three hearty cheers for the Social
Revolution and three groans for Stanley.'
This pattern
of street corner lectures, occasional large scale events and contact with
anarchists both local and national nurtured Bert’s political development. Branch
morale dipped a bit when William Baillie emigrated to America in the Spring of
1891 but Herbert responded positively, expanding his own contribution and in
May 1891 crossing the Pennines to lecture for Leeds SL. Everyone’s spirits were lifted on August Bank Holiday
Monday when SL members from all across the Midlands and North 'met at Matlock for an outing and social
intercourse… No better institution can exist than one or two of these social
gatherings for putting fresh life and go into the breast of any daunted
propagandist…We climbed, sang and boated till tea,.. merriment being at the
climax all through.” The Branch also opened a new social centre, 'the International Club, 25 Bury Road,
Strangeways, open every evening'.
By that time
the national Socialist League, Stockton’s Manchester Branch and Bert himself
were all converts to the anarchist cause with scant affection for
state-socialism. Before the end of the 1891 Bert and his comrades called
themselves 'The Manchester Anarchist
Group (MAG)' and regular reports of
their activities appeared in the Anarchist-Communist newspaper Freedom.
When a bunch
of anarchists were lured into the Walsall
bomb plot by a police agent in 1892 Bert was amongst their most active
supporters. A Handsworth insurance agent, Joseph Cavargua wrongly arrested as a
suspect was declared guilty by the press merely on the mistaken basis that “he was a member of Manchester Anarchist
Club”. On Sunday 17th April 1892, Herbert spoke out alongside
David Nicoll, John Bingham and Alf Barton at a huge Walsall defence meeting in
Stevenson Square but to no avail.
In 1893, Stockton
had converted all his siblings to anarchism and with missionary zeal Bert
carried the torch into the heartlands of opponents, lecturing Salford’s Marxist
SDF on February 17th on, “Why
I am an Anarchist” and on April 8th debating with a Temperance
Reformer on 'Marriage'. In June, young William Stockton followed his older
brother’s lead with an outdoor lecture in Manchester on, “The Fallacy of Political Methods.” But, encouraged by the success
of their Walsall sting and the subsequent imprisonment of Commonweal editor David Nicoll, police began to crack down on the
Manchester anarchists but first there was an opportunity for fun.
In August 1893 anarchists from Manchester,
Sheffield, Derbyshire and Leicester all travelled to Monsal Dale to enjoy
fellowship, fresh air and the free exchange of political ideas:
'We roamed through splendid mountain
and river scenery and forming in a group close to a waterfall, we sang revolutionary
songs amidst the splashing of the water. The effect was enough to arouse the
enthusiasm of all hearers. Thus without government, policemen or social
democratic would-be political despots everything passed off harmoniously. There
being no authority we went where we liked and rambled in groups along the river
banks till we came to some boards which said on them, Trespassers Will be Prosecuted.
We held a discussion as to the meaning of the words and finally decided that
they were relics of the Antedeluvian period and thought it best to knock the
boards down and throw them into the river.” After afternoon tea the comrades
gathered for an al fresco conference
“under the hill” where a fund was started to provide for Nicoll on his release,
arrangements were agreed to “get the released Chicago Anarchists over here and
to hold a big demonstration in the North…We then proceeded to the station and
liberally posted it all over with little notices, such as Anarchy no Master; Revolution
not Reform; Read COMMONWEAL; Read FREEDOM; etc. Then
we went home after giving our comrades a hearty cheer for Anarchy and the
Social Revolution.'
On Sunday
October 1st, the arrests started as soon as the anarchists gathered
at Ardwick Green and Bert’s brother, Ernest Stockton was amongst the four
anarchists fined 21s each the following day. Barton also had to pay for a
replacement umbrella for Inspector Caminada after the copper wrecked the
original in assaulting him! Despite many more arrests the anarchists’ free
speech campaign was maintained into the new year and the umbrella incident
exploited for comedic purposes.
To the tune
of “Monte Carlo” the anarchists composed a twelve verse ditty entitled, “The Scamp Who Broke the Gamp at Ardwick
Green, O
'Caminada
showed his valour by knocking people down,
And using
his gamp well,
Good
citizens to fell,
He collared
all the Anarchists and marched them through the town,
And put them
in the Fairfield station cell.'
'And he
walks along the street with an independent air,
The people all
declare,
He is a
scoundrel rare,
His head is
Wood,
And is no
good,
Except to
provide the pigs with food,
The scamp
who broke his gamp at Ardwick Green, O.'
Bert’s
sister, Eleanor participated in the 1893 campaign and was arrested. Bert was
arrested twice at Ardwick Green, on
Sunday 29th October and again on Sunday 12th November.
The first time he paid the 40s fine but the comrades couldn’t afford to keep
paying out so on the second occasion Bert spent a month in Strangeways Prison
where his dad was a warder. The authorities won the war of attrition and
diverted the anarchists elsewhere although they gained support from a few independent-minded
individuals. Dr Sinclair, a member of Manchester City Council, denounced the Watch
Committee’s prejudice:
'The Anarchists seemed to have been treated more as
Scuttlers than what they really were – a party of misguided young men airing
their opinions.'
Fellow Councillor Canon Nunn defended prejudice and added his
own bizarre recommendation that Manchester Anarchists 'substitute cricket or
football for firing pistols at a target in a Deansgate slum'. Bert exposed this
calumny with a letter in the Manchester
Advertiser.
A few grassroots
socialists supported MAG, but at the February Independent Labour Party National Conference in
Manchester, 'several motions were submitted declaring in effect that the party
had no sympathy with the Anarchists.' Labour was already on the electoral march
and desperate for respectability. In March 1894 Ernest lectured at Walsall in
support of the continuing campaign and Bert’s activism continued. His weekly
meetings at Philip’s Park and New Cross generally attracted audiences of 500 to
800, but his attention was temporarily distracted by 22 year-old, Salford born,
Emily Bradney, who in the summer, he married at Chorlton register office.
Eleanor, Ernest and William weren’t far behind in getting married, with Nellie teaming
up with Alf Barton and Ernie keeping his relationship secret.
In July 1894,
Bert was involved in a deadly 'molehunt' with David Nicoll denouncing, in
print, the prominent anarchist Henry Benjamin Samuels as a police spy. Nicoll’s
accusations met with a conspiracy of silence. Herbert Stockton’s efforts to
convene a formal anarchist tribunal were also rebuffed. Bert didn’t press the
point and rather left Nicoll hanging out to dry. It wasn’t Bert’s finest hour
but it didn’t shake his commitment to the cause and besides his regular
Manchester lectures in 1896 he travelled to Liverpool where he delivered
'interesting lectures to large and attentive audiences, with very good
results'. By then Herbert was recognised by the movement as a popular speaker
who could draw in large audiences, and towards the end of 1896 he was lured down
to London where he immediately made a distinctive contribution to the November,
'Chicago Martyrs Commemoration'; “Men of
science, fame and workers have already spoken but I am going to speak on behalf
of the nobodies…”
Word soon
spread that Bert was in town and when the Stratford Grove anarchists appealed
in the pages of FREEDOM for “some help with speakers” they specified – 'if
possible (John) Turner or (Herbert) Stockton'. 'On Monday February 5th
(1897) Comrade Herbert Stockton delivered a lecture on Anarchism v. Commercialism' at Christchurch Hall, Spitalfields which
defined his brand of anarchy. Bert claimed Individualist Anarchism, Social
Democracy and Capitalism amounted to the same thing – “based on making people
work and be good through material reward – Anarchist Communism alone striving
for a system of society where man would act well to his fellows for the
pleasure he would derive by it and he would work through his being interested
in it.'
In April,
Bert and Anarchist-Communist comrades organised a 'Commemoration of the 26th
Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Commune of Paris' that, for once,
included a great deal of constructive debate. Charles Quin emphasised that, 'The Communards were the first body
of Workingmen to fight against governmentalism and the first who were not
merely nationalist. It was not possible for any government to bamboozle all the people all the time… Government was but the shadow of their own fears
thrown upon the mist of ignorance.” “Touzeau
Parris said that some very striking reasons had been given for the failure
of the Commune. One was that the country people did not understand what the
Parisians were about. That might not be the trouble in England…but even here in
London they must not forget that…the mass of the people were not with them…till
the mass of the people knew what they were going in for revolt would only bring
trouble and perhaps disgrace.' 'Herbert
Stockton, while agreeing in the main with Touzeau Parris, deprecated the
Social Democratic idea that they must not do anything till they were all in
line and got the word to move. When men had got the spirit of revolt within
them they could not wait for the millions of lazy devils behind but would act
as their nature dictated.'
In November,
Bert chaired the November Chicago Commemoration but it produced more heat than
light. 'Comrade Leggatt vowed
eternal war against the present system of Society' whilst Frank Kitz reminded the audience 'how much better it would be if the
Highlanders of Danghai instead of climbing the heights of the frontier of India
and murdering men with whom they had no quarrel were to make a stand for their
own homes in the hills of Scotland.' French revolutionary, Georges Etievant, newly arrived after five years imprisonment for
supplying explosives to Ravachol, then added his own pearls of insurrectionary
encouragement (two months later he returned to France, stabbed 2 policemen,
shot another and was imprisoned for life).
Bert and his
fellow Anarchists-Communists frustrated by the yawning gap between their revolutionary
ardour and the slow, compromising reality of the English working class organised
a London Conference for the 26th and 27th December to review
and reorganise their activities. Frank Kitz chaired the first day, Bert the
second and the problem of print propaganda was a hot topic. 'Frank Kitz insisted on the usefulness
of a leaflet propaganda by which the modern Socialist movement in England was
begun…it reaches those who cannot buy a paper and might be started at any
moment without causing the constant anxiety and hard work connection with the
production of a paper.'
Bert and a band of his associates weren’t to be quieted
by new initiatives, which in any case were never carried out, and spiritedly
laid into the one anarchist initiative that had endured. 'FREEDOM was described as a
philosophical middle-class organ, not intelligible to the working classes, not
up to date in late information and…less revolutionary than Comic Cuts, Ally Sloper and
Sam Weller. It was edited and managed
by an inaccessible group of arrogant persons, worse than the Pope and his
seventy cardinals and written by fossilised old quill-drivers.'
Throughout
1898, Herbert Stockton was living in London and headlining at revolutionary events
like the Paris Commune Celebration and Chicago Martyrs Commemoration. Returning
to Manchester on a short visit in July, 'our old and much-missed comrade
Stockton' was feted as a celebrity. Whilst relishing the revolutionary comradeship
Bert was losing touch with the tragically moderate aspirations of ordinary
workers. Perhaps Ernest Stockton was also unduly influenced by the metropolitan
atmosphere when he visited Bert with his young wife, Louisa, and even younger
sister-in-law, Esther. The newspapers relished Ernest’s resulting divorce, 'on
the grounds of his incestuous adultery with petitioner’s sister…While in London
petitioner thought her husband and sister were too free and on their return to
Manchester petitioner’s mother shared that opinion and boxed Esther’s ears.'
Ernest’s infatuation with Esther proved as short-lived as his love for anarchy
and he emigrated to New York without either and aged thirty-nine married
another teenager.
In 1899 Bert
and his family returned North and settled in Sheffield with his sister who’d
married Alf Barton. Together, the trio revived the local libertarian cause and
in July 1899 FREEDOM reported that “the Sheffield Monolith once more
resounded with the hum of successful Anarchist meetings.” Ignoring national
policies, grassroots state-socialists could be comradely and when, in
September, Bert embarked on a “ground-breaking” mission to Mexborough “they had
a very successful meeting and received good help from the local ILP.” Bert and Alf concentrated on anti-war activism
in 1900 but the jingo’s were out in force and Herbert Stockton’s last recorded
letter to FREEDOM reveals feelings of melancholy and defeat:
'Yes our propaganda has fallen on evil times.
Who could have foreseen this ten years ago? Anarchists, Socialists are nothing
nowadays…We must watch and wait and drift a bit perhaps…I send heartiest wishes
that you may all long be spared to keep a “good heart” in the “one true faith”
the hope of the ultimate
triumph of which alone makes life at
present endurable viz: human liberty and happiness – Yours rebelliously, H
STOCKTON.'
When Billy
MacQueen, an old comrade from his early Manchester days was arrested in America
in 1902, Bert solicited money for his defence fund from his home at 39,
Hammerton Road, Sheffield but in
truth he’d lost hope. Alf and Nellie remained iconoclasts but joined the ranks
of State Socialists. Nellie was big in the Coop movement and pioneered the
white poppy as a peace symbol. After flirting with Communism, Alf became a
Labourite and backed Britain’s involvement in WWI.
In 1905 Bert
moved back to Manchester and forgot
all about the “one true faith”. His youngest brother William had abandoned hope
decades before but after Britain declared war on Germany Herbert Stockton turned
heretic and volunteered to kill for his country. Bert sailed from Southampton
to Le Havre on 15th August 1915 and served with the army in France until
May 1919. He was never again politically active and died in Levenshulme on
Thursday 18th February 1937, aged 66.
For Peace, Love & Anarchy
Christopher
Draper
(nb This is the 6th in a monthly series of “Northern Anarchist Lives”.
Next
month, “Everton’s Tolstoy”)
Posts
