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Guy Aldred

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Guy Aldred
Born(1886-11-05)5 November 1886
Clerkenwell,London, England
Died16 October 1963(1963-10-16)(aged 76)
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SpouseRose Witcop
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    Guy Alfred Aldred(oftenGuy A. Aldred;5 November 1886 – 16 October 1963) was a Britishanarcho-communistand a prominent member of theAnti-Parliamentary Communist Federation(APCF). He founded theBakuninPress publishing house and edited fiveGlasgow-based anarchist periodicals:The Herald of Revolt,The Spur,The Commune,The Council,andThe Word,where he worked closely withEthel MacDonaldand his later partnerJenny Patrick.

    Early life

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    Aldred was born inClerkenwell,London.His father was a 22-year-old lieutenant in theRoyal Navy,and his mother was Ada Caroline Holdsworth, a 19-year-oldparasolmaker. Although Ada was socially unacceptable to the young naval officer, he married her shortly before Guy's birth. After the wedding, he left her at the church to return to his mother.Guy Fawkesnight, 5 November, gave Guy his forename. Guy was brought up in the home of Ada's father, Charles Holdsworth, aVictorianradical.He attended the Iron Infant's School inFarringdon Road,later moving to the Hugh Middleton Higher Grade School, where he was presented to thePrince of Walesbecause he was the youngest pupil. One of his fellow pupils was the son ofHermann Jung,the Swiss watchmaker and one-time activist in theFirst International.His first adventures inpropagandawere with theAnti-Nicotine League,theBand of Hope,and thetotal abstinencemovement, and he remained an abstainer in these respects all his life.

    His grandfather, anAnglican,encouraged him to attend the church ofSt Anne and St Agnes,where he took communion in 1894. However, he soon developed a critical attitude to the church, even though he was close to his cousin, a curate atHolloway.

    At the age of 15 (1902), he was made aware of his LondonprovincialismwhenMadho Singh II,theMaharaja of Jaipur,visited the city. He became fascinated by the newspaper accounts of the Maharaja moving around with his "travelling god":

    The Rajah's god was a substantial fact. It had invaded my petty little world. It had brought home to me the realities of other cities and of other religions. It had made known to me, as no mere study could have done, the fact that Christianity wasnotthe religion of the world. It had brought home to my understanding the fact that there was an Oriental theology beyond the pale of Christian orthodoxy.[1]

    Later that year he gained a reputation as a "Boy Preacher", printing and handing out his own leaflets, which were often received with ridicule and disdain. He found employment as an office boy with theNational Press Agencyin Whitefriars House, where he was promoted to sub-editor. Working with an evangelist named McMasters, he co-founded the "Christian Social Mission", opening shortly after his 16th birthday as theHollowayBoy Preacher.Hisnon-conformistapproach aroused concern following his first sermon.

    After contactingCharles Voysey,Guy was eventually granted an audience on 20 December 1902. The 74-year-old well-to-do Voysey was surprised to be confronted with a coarse-dressed 16-year-old working-class boy. After careful preliminaries on the part of Voysey, the meeting lasted three hours. Their friendship was to continue until Voysey's death in 1912.

    In January 1903 the Reverend George Martin, an Anglican priest, visited Guy with one of his leaflets, asking to meet theHolloway Boy Preacher.Martin worked in London's worst slums, and Guy joined him in his work with London's poorest. His friendship with Martin lasted six years and influenced Guy strongly. He soon gave his last sermon from the pulpit and left the "Christian Social Mission".

    Agnosticism

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    Guy became a speaker at theInstitute ofTheism,but soon felt it was time to set up his own organisation. In 1904 he founded theTheistic Mission,which met every Sunday. With a considerable, though sometimes boisterous, crowd, Guy was gaining a reputation as a forceful young orator. He was also shifting towardsatheism.By August, the meeting banner was changed to readThe ClerkenwellFreethoughtMission.Meetings often generated extreme hostility. On one occasion the crowd charged the platform, knocking Guy to the ground and beating him. Police intervention put an end to the meeting. Around this time he became interested inTheAgnosticJournaland became friendly with its editor,"Saladin",aScotsman.It was at the Journal's office that he met another Scotsman, John Morrison Davidson, and Guy became more interested in Scottish affairs.

    Indian Sedition Trial, 1907

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    Mast head ofThe Indian Sociologist

    The Indian Sociologistwas an Indian nationalist newspaper edited byShyamji Krishnavarma.When Krishnavarma left London for Paris, fearing repression by the authorities, the printing of the newspaper was first taken over by Arthur Fletcher Horsley. However, he was arrested and tried for printing the May, June and July issues. (He was tried and sentenced on the same day asMadan Lal Dhingra,who was convicted of the assassination ofSir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie). At Horseley's prominent trial theLord Chief Justice,Lord Alverstone,indicated that anyone printing that sort of material would be liable for prosecution. Nevertheless, Aldred, as an advocate of thefree press,published it, bearing his own name. The police obtained a warrant and seized 396 copies of the issue. At the trial the prosecution was led by theAttorney General,SirWilliam Robson,at theCentral Criminal Court.Robson highlighted parts ofTISwhich Aldred had himself written, particularly focussing on a passage which touched on the execution of Dhingra:

    In the execution of Dhingra that cloak will be publicly worn, that secret language spoken, that solemn veil employed to conceal the sword of Imperialism by which we are sacrificed to the insatiable idol of modern despotism, whose ministers areCromer,CurzonandMorley& Co. Murder - which they would represent to us as a horrible crime, when the murdered is a government flunkey - we see practised by them without repugnance or remorse when the murdered is a working man, a Nationalist patriot, anEgyptianfellaheen or half-starved victim of despotic society's bloodlust. It was so atFeatherstoneandDenshawai;it has often been so atNewgate:and it was so withRobert Emmett,theParis communards,and theChicago martyrs.Who is more reprehensible than the murderers of these martyrs? The police spies who threw the bomb at Chicago; the ad-hoc tribunal which murdered innocent Egyptians at Denshawai; theAsquithwho assumed full responsibility for the murder of the workers at Featherstone; the assassins of Robert Emmett? Yet these murderers have not been executed! Why then should Dhingra be executed? Because he is not a time-serving executioner, but a Nationalist patriot, who, though his ideals are not their ideals, is worthy of the admiration of those workers at home, who have as little to gain from the lick-spittle crew of Imperialistic blood-sucking, capitalist parasites at as what the Nationalists have in India.

    Aldred also remarked that the Sepoy Mutiny, or Indian Mutiny, would be described asThe Indian War of Independence.Aldred received a sentence of twelve months hard labour.[2]His involvement withThe Indian Sociologistbrought him into contact withHar Dayal,who combined anarchism with hisIndian Nationalism,based on his view of ancientAryanculture andBuddhism.

    Socialism and anarchism

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    Aldred joined theSocial Democratic Federation,but left in 1906. He was a politicalconscientious objectorduring theFirst World Warand also a founder of the GlasgowAnarchistGroup. He initiated the Communist Propaganda Groups, in support of theOctober Revolution,which subsequently became a component of theCommunist Leaguein 1919. Following its collapse, he founded theAnti-Parliamentary Communist Federation(APCF) in 1921, and gradually moved towards opposing theSoviet Union.His links withleft communistsacross Europe brought him close tocouncil communism.

    In 1932 he split with the APCF and later founded theWorkers Open Forum,which eventually became theUnited Socialist Movement.DuringWorld War IIthe USM worked with people from across the political spectrum to oppose military action, in a form ofPopular Front,and came to advocateWorld Government.AfterJoseph Stalin's death, Aldred became increasingly supportive of the Soviet Union.

    Free love

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    Aldred worked closely with his partnerRose Witcop(9 April 1890 – 4 July 1932), a pioneer ofbirth controland sister ofMilly Witkop(who was, in turn, partner of anarchistRudolf Rocker).[3]

    Together they published an edition ofMargaret Sanger'sFamily Limitation,an action which saw them denounced by a London magistrate for "indiscriminate" publication[4]and, despite expert testimony from a consultant toGuy's Hospitaland evidence at the appeal that the book had only been sold to those aged over twenty-one, the stock was ordered to bedestroyed.[5]Their case had been strongly supported byDora Russell[6]who, with her husbandBertrand RussellandJohn Maynard Keynes,paid the legal costs of the appeal.[7]

    Aldred and Witcop had a son, Annesley, in 1909. Although they were drifting apart by the time Aldred settled permanently in Glasgow in 1922, finally parting in 1924, they had a legal marriage on 2 February 1926, when it seemed possible Witcop might be deported for her continuing work onfamily planning.[8]

    Death and legacy

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    After initially refusing hospital treatment for a heart condition, Guy Aldred died, almost penniless, in theWestern Infirmary,Glasgow, on 16 October 1963 aged 76, leaving his body toGlasgow University's Department ofAnatomy.His remains were cremated at theMaryhill Crematorium,Glasgow on 4 May 1964.[9]

    Aldred's long-time associate andliterary executor,John Taylor Caldwell,produced a biographyCome Dungeons Dark: The Life and Times of Guy Aldred, Glasgow Anarchistand ensured that Aldred's work was collated and preserved onmicrofilm.His personal papers were deposited in the Bailie's Library, Glasgow, now held in theMitchell Library.He was survived by his son, Annesley.

    Work

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    Some of Aldred's pamphlets can be found online as part of theJo Labadie Collection.

    References

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    1. ^Dogmas Discarded: An Autobiography of Thought 1886 - 1908,by Guy Aldred, Part 1, page 16,The Strickland Press,Glasgow 1904
    2. ^Rex v. Aldredby Guy Aldred,The Strickland Press,Glasgow,1948
    3. ^Nicolas Walter, ‘Witcop, Rose Lillian (1890–1932)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58610,accessed 4 Sept 2007
    4. ^The Times,11 January 1923, p.7
    5. ^The Times,12 February 1923, p.5
    6. ^"Dora Russell".Spartacus Educational.Retrieved17 May2021.
    7. ^Russell, Dora, (1975)The Tamarisk Tree
    8. ^Caldwell, John Taylor (1988), Come Dungeons Dark: The Life and Times of Guy Aldred, Glasgow Anarchist, p.211.ISBN0-946487-19-7
    9. ^Bob Jones, ‘Aldred, Guy Alfred (1886–1963)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40278,accessed 10 Sept 2007

    Bibliography

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