Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (1 November 1888 – 28 April 1988) was a British

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

politician,

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

campaigner and

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

activist.

Early life and career

Brockway was born to Rev. William George Brockway and Frances Elizabeth Abbey in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. He developed an interest in politics while attending the School for the Sons of Missionaries, then in

Blackheath, London Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. Historically within the county of Kent, it is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich, London, G ...

(now Eltham College), from 1897 to 1905. In 1908, Brockway became a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

. Several decades later, during a debate in a House of Lords on

animal cruelty Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction of suffering or Injury, harm by humans upon animals, either by omission (neglect) or by commission. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm ...

, he said: "I am a vegetarian and I have been so for 70 years. On the whole, I think, physically I am a pretty good advertisement for that practice." After leaving school, he worked as a journalist for newspapers and journals including '' The Quiver'', the ''Daily News'' and the ''Christian Commonwealth''. In 1907, Brockway joined the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...

(ILP) and was a regular visitor to the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

. He was appointed editor of the '' Labour Leader'' (the newspaper of the ILP, later called the ''New Leader'') and was, by 1913, a committed

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. He opposed sending troops to France during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and, through his position as editor of the ''Labour Leader'', was outspoken in his views about the conflict. On 12 November 1914, he published an appeal for men and women of the military age to join him in forming the No-Conscription Fellowship to campaign against the possibility of the government attempting to introduce

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

. Brockway acknowledged his wife, Lilla Brockway, had the foresight "that those who intended to refuse military service should band themselves together". Lilla acted as provisional secretary at their cottage in Derbyshire until the beginning of 1915, when the membership had grown so large that it had become necessary to open an office in London. In London, Catherine Marshall became the Fellowship's political secretary since she was adept at political strategy as the Parliamentary Secretary of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. The No-Conscription Fellowship produced a weekly newspaper, ''The Tribunal'', which was suppressed; through the activity of Joan Beauchamp it continued production, although her refusal to divulge the name of the printer caused her to be charged with contempt of court and held in custody for 10 days. The offices of the ''Labour Leader'' were raided in August 1915 and Brockway was charged with publishing seditious material. He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted in court. In 1916 Brockway was again arrested, this time for distributing anti-conscription leaflets. He was fined, and after refusing to pay the fine, was sent to Pentonville Prison for two months. Shortly after his release, Brockway was arrested for a third time for his refusal to be conscripted, after being denied recognition as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

. He was handed over to the Army and court-martialled for disobeying orders. As if a

traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

, he was held for a night in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

, in a dungeon under Chester Castle and in Walton Prison, Liverpool, where he edited an unofficial newspaper, the ''Walton Leader'', for conscientious objectors in the prison. This led to his being disciplined, which in turn led to a 10-day prison strike by conscientious objectors before he was transferred to Lincoln Jail, where he spent some time in solitary confinement until finally released in 1919. In October 1950 he revisited the jail with

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (; ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the 3rd President of Ire ...

, the Irish statesman. Following his release, Brockway became an active member of the India League, which advocated Indian independence. He became secretary of the ILP in 1923 and later its chairman. Years later, the Government of India honoured him with the third highest civilian award of the Padma Bhushan in 1989.

Political activities, 1924–1935

Brockway stood for Parliament several times, including at Lancaster in 1922 and against

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

in a 1924 by-election. In 1926, Brockway presided over the annual conference of the No More War Movement at Birmingham. In 1926, he became the first chairperson of

War Resisters' International War Resisters' International (WRI), headquartered in London, is an international anti-war organisation with members and affiliates in over 40 countries. History ''War Resisters' International'' was founded in Bilthoven, Netherlands in 1921 un ...

, serving in this post until 1934. Brockway was a member of the League against Imperialism created in Brussels in 1927. As the Nazi Party was getting more and more popular support, Brockway arrived in Poland after being invited there by The Independent Socialist Party of Poland, with Joseph Krok as one of its leaders. Brockway tried to warn the public of the Nazi threat, but he was instructed by the British Embassy in Warsaw NOT to mention "the minority issue" of Poland. Later Brockway met with Antonov Obisenko, USSR ambassador to Poland. At the 1929 general election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leyton East as a Labour Party candidate. He polled 11,111 votes and, immediately after the election, the Liberal candidate announced that Brockway had converted him to

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. His convictions brought him into difficulties with the Labour Party. He was also outspoken in Parliament, and was once "named" (suspended) by the Speaker while demanding a debate on India at

Prime Minister's Questions Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention (political custom), constitutional convention in the United Kingd ...

. In 1931 Brockway lost his seat and the following year he disaffiliated from the Labour Party along with the rest of the ILP. He stood unsuccessfully for the ILP in the 1934 Upton by-election ( Upton was a division of West Ham), placed a remote third with only a 3.5% share of the votes cast, and in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

in the 1935 election. He also wrote a book on the arms trade, '' The Bloody Traffic'', published by Gollancz Ltd in 1934. According to David Howell, after 1932 Brockway "sought to articulate a socialism distinct from the pragmatism of Labour and the

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

of the Communist Party".Howell, David, "Brockway, (Archibald) Fenner, Baron Brockway" in H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

: From the earliest times to the year 2000''. (Volume Seven, pp. 765–6). In Brockway's science fiction novel, ''Purple Plague'' (1935), a sea liner is quarantined for a decade as a result of a plague. An egalitarian society emerges.

Spanish Civil War

Despite Brockway's previous pacifist commitment, he resigned from

, explaining: He assisted in the recruitment of British volunteers to fight the fascist forces of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

in Spain through the ILP Contingent. He sailed to Calais in February 1937 and was believed to have been destined for Spain. Among those who went to Spain was Eric Blair (better known as

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

), and Brockway wrote a letter of recommendation for Blair to present to the ILP representatives in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Following the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Brockway advocated public understanding of the conflict. He wrote a number of articles about the conflict and was influential in getting Orwell's ''

Homage to Catalonia ''Homage to Catalonia'' is a 1938 memoir by English writer George Orwell, in which he accounts his personal experiences and observations while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Covering the period between December 1936 and June 1937, Orwell re ...

'' published.Spartacus Educational: Fenner Brockway profile
Notwithstanding his support for British participation in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Brockway served as chair of the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors throughout the war, and continued to serve as chair until his death. He also sought to re-enter Parliament, unsuccessfully contesting wartime by-elections for the ILP at Lancaster in 1941 and Cardiff East in 1942.

After the Second World War

In May 1946, Brockway toured the British occupation zone in Germany as an accredited war correspondent, meeting German socialists and reporting on living conditions there; he wrote about the visit in ''German Diary'', published by the Left Book Club. Brockway appeared in Hitler's Black Book that contained a list of British subjects and residents who would have been subject to arrest had the Nazis successfully invaded the UK. The contents of the book were not publicly known until after the Second World War. Brockway later rejoined the Labour Party. After the 1950 general election he returned to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

, following an absence of more than 18 years, as the MP for Eton and Slough. On 28 March 1950, he forced a debate in the House of Commons on the decision by the Labour government of the UK to banish Seretse Khama from his homeland, the British protectorate which became Botswana. The British government also withheld recognition of Khama as the Chief of the Bamangwato people, because he had married an Englishwoman. The marriage was an affront to the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

South African minority government under D. F. Malan, which, it became very clear, the UK government wished to appease. In 1951, Brockway was one of the four founders of the charity War on Want, which fights global poverty. He helped establish the Congress of Peoples Against Imperialism (est. 1945), an organisation he continued to work with throughout the 1950s. His activities there included protesting against the response of the government to the

Mau Mau Uprising The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the ...

in the British

Kenya Colony The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa, was part of the British Empire in Africa from 1920 until 1963. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a Brit ...

. In this area, he was a part of the larger Movement for Colonial Freedom. From the late 1950s he regularly proposed legislation in Parliament to ban

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...

, only to be defeated each time. He strongly opposed the use or possession of

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s by any nation and was a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. On 18 July 1961, Brockway was chosen by Speaker Harry Hylton-Foster to ask the first question at the very first

in the current format. Brockway was a prominent member of the

British Humanist Association Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent non-religious people in the UK through a mixture of charitable servic ...

and South Place Ethical Society where he became an Appointed Lecturer during the 1960s. He gave the 1986 Conway Memorial Lecture on 21 May 1986. The Lecture was titled ''M D Conway: His Life and Message For Today'' and was chaired by

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot beg ...

. The Brockway Room at Conway Hall in London is named after him. Former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, who defected to the UK in 1985, alleged that Brockway had been a "confidential contact" of the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

and had "accepted a great deal of hospitality from Soviet intelligence".

House of Lords

Brockway narrowly lost his seat in the House of Commons at the 1964 election, despite the national swing to Labour at that election, as he was portrayed by his opponents as being the principal cause of immigrants from the West Indies settling in Slough. He subsequently was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 17 December 1964, taking the title Baron Brockway, ''of Eton and of Slough in the County of Buckingham'', and took a seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

Last years

Brockway continued to campaign for world peace and was for several years the chairman of the Movement for Colonial Freedom. Other important posts held by him include the Presidency of the British Council for Peace in Vietnam, and membership of the Advisory Council of the

. The World Disarmament Campaign was founded by Brockway in 1979, together with Philip Noel-Baker, to work for the implementation of the policies agreed at the 1978 Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly. Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Brockway, in April 1980, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.'' Brockway discusses his introduction to socialism, through Keir Hardie, and his interest in

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. Brockway died on 28 April 1988, aged 99. He was some six months shy of his centenary. Brockway had been twice married: firstly in 1914 (divorced 1945) to Lilla, daughter of the Rev. W. Harvey-Smith; secondly in 1946 to Edith Violet King. By his first marriage, he had four daughters, and by his second, he had a son.

Writings

While he was in prison, Brockway met the prominent peace activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse, and in 1922 they co-authored ''English prisons to-day: being the report of the Prison system enquiry committee'', a devastating critique of the English prison system which resulted in a wave of prison reform that has continued to this day. Brockway wrote more than twenty other books on politics and four volumes of autobiography. * 1915: ''The devil's business; a play and its justification'' * 1915: ''Is Britain blameless?'' * 1916: ''Socialism for pacifists'' * 1918?: ''All about the I.L.P.'' * 1919: ''The recruit: a play in one act'' * 1927: ''A week in India'' * 1928: ''A new way with crime'' * 1930: ''The Indian crisis'' * 1931: ''Hands off the railmen's wages!'' * 1932: ''Hungry England'' * 1933: ''The bloody traffic'' * 1934: ''Will Roosevelt succeed? A study of Fascist tendencies in America'' * 1935: ''Purple Plague: A Tale of Love and Revolution'' (fiction) * 1937: ''The truth about Barcelona'' * 1938: ''Pacifism and the left wing'' * 1938: ''Workers' Front'' * 1940 :''Socialism can defeat Nazism: together with Who were the friends of fascism'', with John McNair * 1942: ''The way out'' * 1942: ''Inside the left; thirty years of platform, press, prison and Parliament'' * 1942?: ''The C.O. and the community'' * 1944: ''Death pays a dividend'', with Frederic Mullally * 1946: ''German diary'' * 1946: ''Socialism over sixty years: the life of Jowett of Bradford (1864–1944)'' * 1949: ''Bermondsey story; the life of Alfred Salter'' * 1953?: ''Why Mau Mau?: an analysis and a remedy'' * 1963: ''Outside the right; a sequel to 'Inside the left., with George Bernard Shaw * 1963: ''African socialism'' * 1967: ''This shrinking explosive world: a study of race relations'' * 1973: ''The colonial revolution'' * 1977: ''Towards tomorrow: the autobiography of Fenner Brockway'' * 1980: ''Britain's first socialists: the Levellers, Agitators, and Diggers of the English Revolution'' * 1984: ''Bombs in Hyde Park?'' * 1986: ''98 not out''

Tributes

Brockway's life and legacy are celebrated in his old constituency of

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

with the now annual FennerFest, a community arts and culture festival. A statue of Brockway stands at the entrance to Red Lion Square Park in Holborn, London; it was funded by many involved in the Commonwealth independence movements he supported and was expected to be unveiled after his death. However, he achieved such longevity that it was likely that the original Planning Permission to erect it would run out, causing problems to renew the process. It was decided to ask him to unveil it, he being one of the few private individuals, as opposed to Heads of State to do so. It was damaged (an arm was broken off) by a falling tree in the Great Storm of 1987. The refurbished and insured statue was installed shortly after his death. A close in the town of Newport in southern Wales is named after him.

References

External links

Fenner Brockway: 1960 Racial Discrimination Bill UK Parliament Living Heritage

Papers of Fenner Brockway
at th
Churchill Archives Centre
*

Fenner Brockway talking in 1981 about his early involvement with socialism
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brockway, Fenner 1888 births 1988 deaths British anti-war activists British conscientious objectors British humanists British pacifists British people of the Spanish Civil War Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists English anti-fascists English socialists European democratic socialists Government and politics of Slough Independent Labour Party MPs Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Labour Party (UK) life peers Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Life peers created by Elizabeth II Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International People educated at Eltham College People from Slough Place of death missing Politicians from Kolkata Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in public affairs UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs who were granted peerages Independent Labour Party politicians