Charles Mowbray
Illustration of Mowbray published 1895
Born
Charles Wilfred Mowbray

1857
Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England
DiedDecember 1910(1910-12-00) (aged 52–53)
Bridlington, Yorkshire, England
Occupations
  • Tailor
  • Trade unionist
  • Public speaker
MovementAnarchism
Spouse
Mary Benoit
​
​
(m. 1878; died 1892)​

Charles Wilfred Mowbray (1857 – December 1910) was an English anarcho-communist agitator, tailor, trade unionist and public speaker. Mowbray was an active orator and agitator in the Labour Emancipation League, and then the Socialist League, becoming the publisher of the Socialist League's newspaper Commonweal in 1890. At this time he began describing himself as an anarcho-communist. He was arrested in 1892 and charged with conspiracy to murder in a high-profile trial but was acquitted. At this time he reportedly worked as a police informant. From 1894 he lived and worked in the United States where he went on speaker tours before being deported in the wake of the assassination of President McKinley. Back in England he moved away from anarchism and began lecturing on tariff reform (protectionism) and was funded by the National Union of Conservative Associations.

Biography

Mowbray was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham in 1857. In his youth he served in the Durham Light Infantry which resulted in him being firmly anti-war.[1][2] Mowbray became a tailor by trade. In 1878, he married Mary Benoit whose father Joseph Benoit had been a well known communard. Mowbray and Mary went on to have five children.[3]

Political agitation

In the early 1880s Mowbray was living in a notorious London slum, the Old Nichol, and was active in the Labour Emancipation League alongside Frank Kitz.[4] In 1885 they both joined the newly forming Socialist League. Mowbray became known for his public speaking at a time of increasing police repression of open-air meetings.

In September 1885 Mowbray was prosecuted and fined alongside another socialist for "obstructing a public thoroughfare", namely Dod Street in Limehouse, London, after the police attacked a large outdoor protest meeting.[5][6]

In June 1886 he was arrested at a rally in Trafalgar Square and fined £1.[5][3] Later that year he moved to Norwich and began political agitating there.

On 14 January 1887, Mowbray and writer Fred Henderson addressed a public meeting of unemployed workers in Norwich in what became known as the "Battle of Ham Run".[7] After the meeting the crowd marched on the Guildhill to lobby the mayor, and began smashing the windows of a bank and several shops.[8][5] Mowbray and Henderson were both arrested. Mowbray was sentenced to nine months hard labour at Norwich Castle for "riot with force, injuring buildings and assault". Henderson was sentenced to four months imprisonment.[9][10] William Morris wrote a play, The Tables Turned; or, Nupkins Awakened, satirising the trial and judiciary.[4][11] A committee was formed to support Mowbray's wife and five children while he was in prison.[5]

Prison further politicised Mowbray, and after his release he began openly advocating for the use of dynamite and propaganda by the deed.[5] However, according to Special Branch ledgers at this time he also worked for Melville as a police informant, "organising secret shadowers of anarchists".[12]

In 1889 he was elected onto the strike committee for the successful three-week long tailors strike, developing a close relationship with the Jewish anarchist movement.[3]

He became an active member of the Labour Emancipation League.[13] Mowbray was antagonistic towards anarchism until the late 1880s.[14]

Differences within the League sharpened, particularly over the use of violence in the immediate struggle.[15] At the 1890 annual conference of the Socialist League, William Morris was ousted as editor of Commonweal and was replaced by David Nicoll and Frank Kitz with Mowbray as publisher.[16][17] Morris left the League later in the same year, but the removal of his moderating influence and substantial funding shook morale.[15] There was also an increase in violent rhetoric in Commonweal under Nicoll's editorship, with him arguing that "Individual assaults on the system will lead to riots, riots to revolts, revolts to insurrection, insurrection to revolution."[18]

Commonweal trial

Illustration of Mowbray with David Nicoll in court
Mowbray with David Nicoll in court

In an article in Commonweal in April 1892 David Nicoll criticised Justice Henry Hawkins, who had presided over the Walsall anarchist trial, and asked whether Hawkins, the Home Secretary Henry Matthews or Inspector William Melville were "fit to live".

On the morning of the 19th April Mowbray's wife, Mary, died at home of tuberculosis. Four hours later the police arrested Mowbray at his home for incitement to murder Matthews, Hawkins and Melville. His young children were left alone in the house with their dead mother.[19][20][21]

William Morris paid £500 for Mowbray's bail so he could attend the funeral without a police escort. The funeral was attended by several thousand people.[22][20][19]

Poster for a lecture by Mowbray
An 1894 poster for a lecture by Mowbray on the labour movement and government

Nicoll denied any intention to incite murder, stating that the article had been written in "hot blood".[21][23] Mowbray argued that he had not been involved in producing the paper as he had been caring for his wife.[21] Mowbray was acquitted while Nicoll was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with hard labour.[24][25]

In 1893 Mowbray was a delegate at the Zürich Anarchist Congress.[26]

The United States

In 1894, Mowbray travelled to the United States to do a speaking tour in cities on the East Coast. On 28 December 1894 Mowbray gave a lecture to the Ladies' Liberal League in Philadelphia after which he was arrested and charged with inciting riot and sedition.[27] His host, Voltairine de Cleyre, formed a defence committee which succeeded in getting him released.[5]

In early 1894, Mowbray settled in Boston and began working as a tailor. That same year Mowbray was used as an example during debates in Congress on the government's inability to stop anarchists from entering the United States.[28]

Mowbray moved his family to Boston in April 1895 with the help of Josef Peukert. Later that year he did another speaking tour. In Boston Mowbray's public speaking helped inspire printer Harry Kelly into becoming an anarchist.[29] In September 1895 Mowbray and Kelly helped launch and edited a short-lived anarcho-communist newspaper, The Rebel.[5][30]

Mowbray later moved to New York, then Hoboken, New Jersey. In Hoboken he opened a saloon and became a heavy drinker. Following the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 Mowbray was one of a number of anarchists deported from the US.[5][4]

Later life

Mowbray returned to London where he joined the Industrial Union of Direct Actionists which had been founded by John Turner and Charles Lahr and returned to public speaking in support of anarchism.[5] However, Mowbray then appeared to have abandoned his anarchist beliefs and began lecturing on tariff reform (protectionism). This included touring the country for the National Union of Conservative Associations.[1]

In December 1910, Mowbray died in bed from heart failure at a hotel in Bridlington, Yorkshire. He had been in the area speaking in support of Conservative Party candidate Mark Sykes who was running against the incumbent Liberal MP Luke White. White was also the district coroner and presided over the inquest into Mowbray's death.[1] He was buried in London.

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b c "A Stormy Career: Death of Charles Mowbray, Anarchist and Tariff Reformer". Nottingham Evening Post. No. 4786. 14 December 1910. p. 7. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  2. ^ Oliver, Hermia (1983). The International Anarchist Movement in Late Victorian London. Paul Avrich Collection. Beckenham: Croom Helm. p. 54. ISBN 0-312-41958-9. OCLC 9282798. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Walker, John (17 September 2017). "Charles Mowbray - anarchist revolutionary and Forest Gate-unemployed champion". E7 Now & Then. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Wise, Sarah (2009). "Tickling the Elephant". The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum. London: Vintage. pp. 131–153. ISBN 978-1-84413-331-4. OCLC 269246525. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Avrich, Paul (1988). "C. W. Mowbray: A British Anarchist in America". Anarchist Portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. 153–162. ISBN 0-691-04753-7. OCLC 17727270.
  6. ^ Quail, John (2019). The Slow Burning Fuse: The Lost History of the British Anarchists. Constance Bantman, Nick Heath. London: Freedom Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-62963-633-7. OCLC 1089126285.
  7. ^ "The Rioting In Norwich – At Norwich Guild". The Times. London. 17 January 1887. p. 10. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Socialist Riot in Norwich". Bury and Norwich Post. 18 January 1887. p. 7. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
  9. ^ "Conviction of Socialist Rioters". Derby Daily Telegraph. Vol. XVI, no. 2280. 22 January 1887. p. 4. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
  10. ^ Quail 2019, p. 89.
  11. ^ Salmon, Nicholas (Spring 1995). "Topical Realism in The Tables Turned" (PDF). Journal of William Morris Studies. 11 (2). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  12. ^ Butterworth, Alex (2011). The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents. London: Vintage. pp. 310–311. ISBN 978-0-09-955192-8. OCLC 774629245.
  13. ^ Shpayer, Haia (1981). British anarchism 1881-1914: reality and appearance (Doctoral thesis). University of London. p. 19. Archived from the original on 10 May 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  14. ^ Shpayer 1981, p. 21.
  15. ^ a b Quail 2019, p. 118–119.
  16. ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (1995). William Morris: A Life for our Time. New York: Knopf. p. 518. ISBN 978-0-394-58531-4.
  17. ^ McKercher, William Russell (1987). Libertarian Thought In Nineteenth Century Britain: Freedom, Equality, and Authority. New York: Garland Publishing Inc. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8240-0826-0.
  18. ^ Nicoll, D. J. (23 May 1891). "Practical Anarchism" (PDF). Commonweal. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  19. ^ a b Law, John (25 April 1892). "An Anarchist Funeral". Pall Mall Gazette. pp. 1–2. ISSN 0307-8345. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  20. ^ a b Hanson, Ingrid (2021), "Victorian Socialist Obituaries and the Politics of Cross-Class Community", The Routledge Companion to Literature and Class, Routledge, pp. 38–50, doi:10.4324/9781003008354-5, ISBN 978-1-003-00835-4, S2CID 237823042, archived from the original on 20 May 2022, retrieved 20 May 2022
  21. ^ a b c "May 1892, trial of DAVID JOHN NICOLL (32), CHARLES WILFRED MOWBRAY (35)". Old Bailey Proceedings Online. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Anarchist Demonstration In London". The Times. London. 25 April 1892. p. 7. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  23. ^ Shpayer 1981, p. 334.
  24. ^ "News of the Week". Western Gazette. 13 May 1892. p. 8. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  25. ^ Shpayer 1981, p. 45.
  26. ^ "The Great Dock Strike of 1889". Brighton SolFed. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  27. ^ "Mowbray's Arrest". Solidarity. New York City. 15 January 1895.
  28. ^ Kraut, Julia Rose (2012). "Global Anti-Anarchism: The Origins of Ideological Deportation and the Suppression of Expression". Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. 19 (1): 169–193. doi:10.2979/indjglolegstu.19.1.169. ISSN 1080-0727. JSTOR 10.2979/indjglolegstu.19.1.169. S2CID 143789288. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  29. ^ Avrich, Paul (1980). "Chapter 5: Three Anarchists". The Modern School Movement. Princeton University Press. pp. 173–174. doi:10.1515/9781400853182.165. ISBN 978-1-4008-5318-2. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  30. ^ Longa, Ernesto A. (2010). Anarchist Periodicals in English Published in the United States (1833–1955): An Annotated Guide (PDF). Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-8108-7255-4. OCLC 659562331. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 April 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
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