English Radical History

#OnThisDay 1858: Lionel de Rothschild, banker and philanthropist, became the first practising Jew to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. Rothschild took his seat just 3 days after the Jews Relief Act, which removed previous barriers to Jews entering Parliament, took effect.

Lionel de Rothschild, banker and philanthropist, became the first practising Jew to sit as an MP in the House of Commons #OnThisDay 1858. Rothschild took his seat just 3 days after the Jews Relief Act, which removed previous barriers to Jews entering Parliament, took effect.

Common Wealth, a socialist party which stood for common ownership, morality in politics and ‘vital democracy’, was formed #OTD 1942. Famous members included playwright J. B. Priestley, Spanish Civil War veteran Tom Wintringham and Liberal-turned-socialist Sir Richard Acland.

"We form ourselves into a Society for the melioration of the unhappy children of Africa..." Lucy Townsend, founder of the first Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, was born in Birmingham #OnThisDay 1781. Townsend’s organisation became the model for similar organisations in the USA.

Ira Aldridge, actor and playwright, was born in New York #OnThisDay 1807. Faced with persistent racial discrimination in the US, Aldridge emigrated in 1824 to England, where he became the UK’s first black Shakespearean actor. He was later appointed manager of Coventry Theatre.

"Reynolds’s Weekly News will be devoted to the cause of freedom & in the interests of the enslaved masses. In its political sentiment it will be thoroughly democratic..." G. W. M. Reynolds, founder of the most popular radical paper of the post-Chartist era, was born #OTD 1814.

"Most of the fights for the maintenance of freedom of speech and freedom to print were fought for by people on the Left, not by the Right." Michael Foot, Labour Party leader 1980-83, was born #OTD 1913. Foot began his career as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard.

Skirmishes broke out in London #OnThisDay 1866 after supporters of the Reform League clashed with police outside Hyde Park. Protestors had hoped to meet to demonstrate their support for manhood suffrage, but the park’s gates were closed after the meeting was declared illegal.

Jessica Mitford, author, died in California #OnThisDay 1996. Unlike her sisters Unity and Diana, both of whom joined the British Union of Fascists, Jessica was an adherent of communism who was involved in several U.S. civil rights campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s.

"I think the House of Lords ought to be abolished and I don't think the best way for me to abolish it is to go there myself." Michael Foot, born #OnThisDay 1913, explaining his decision to decline a peerage after retiring from the House of Commons in 1992.

Joseph Gales, journalist, publisher and Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, died #OnThisDay 1841. Born in Eckington, Derbyshire, Gales advocated religious tolerance, Parliamentary reform and the abolition of slavery. He left England in the 1790s out of fear for his safety.

The Colne Valley Labour Union, the first labour party organised on the basis of a parliamentary constituency, was formed #OnThisDay 1891. The Union stunned the political world in 1907 when its candidate, the socialist Victor Grayson, won a by-election contest.

#OnThisDay 1931: MPs voted down a bill, introduced by Labour MP Archibald Church, which would have paved the way for the compulsory sterilisation of "mental defectives." Similar laws were passed in the early 1930s in the US and, with the most terrible consequences, in Germany.

The National Charter Association, a national political organization of Chartists, was founded in Manchester #OnThisDay 1840. The historian Dorothy Thompson later described it as "the first nationally organised party of the working class to exist in the world."

"Join with us to exterminate tyranny and foul oppression from the face of our native country..." The Manchester Female Reform Society, which aimed to spread democratic ideals among women, was formed #OnThisDay 1819, just one month before the Peterloo massacre.

"The cultivation of flowers and trees is a civic duty." Ada Salter, social reformer, environmentalist and Quaker, was born #OnThisDay 1866. Salter became President of the Women’s Labour League in 1914 and the first woman mayor in London in 1922.

"SHARPEN the sickle! The fields are white, ‘Tis the time of the harvest at last…" The Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers and Small Holders Union, which later became the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers, was formed in North Walsham, Norfolk #OnThisDay 1906.

#OnThisDay 1919: Ex-servicemen unhappy with unemployment and other grievances rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall. During the riot, people dragged pianos into the streets and began singing and dancing to ‘Keep the home fires burning’.

The Ballot Act, which required that elections be held by secret ballot, became law #OnThisDay 1872. Before the Act, voters had to declare their choice of candidate openly, which led to intimidation and bribery by employers and landlords. The ballot was a key Chartist demand.

"The notion that the husband ought to have the headship or authority over his wife is the root of all social evils…Husband & wife should be co-equal. In a happy marriage there is no question of ‘obedience’." Lydia Becker, women’s suffrage campaigner, died #OnThisDay 1890.