Henry Noel Brailsford (25 December 1873 – 23 March 1958) was the most prolific British

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

of the first half of the 20th century. A founding member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1907, he resigned from his job at '' The Daily News'' in 1909 when it supported the

force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into ...

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to member ...

s on hunger strike.

Early life

The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, he was born in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

and educated at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is an independent, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only priv ...

in Scotland.

Career in journalism

Brailsford abandoned an academic career to become a journalist, rising to prominence in the 1890s as a

foreign correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locat ...

for ''

The Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

'', specialising in the

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, France and Egypt. In 1899 he moved to London, working for the ''

Morning Leader ''The Morning Leader'' is a Sri Lankan English-language newspaper. It is published by Leader Publications (Pvt) Ltd. Its sister publications are The Sunday Leader ''The Sunday Leader'' was an English-language Sri Lankan weekly newspaper publish ...

'' and then '' The Daily News''. He led a British relief mission to Macedonia in 1903, publishing a book, ''Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future'', on his return. In 1905 he was convicted of conspiring to obtain a British passport in the name of one person for another person to travel to Russia. The Men's League for Women's Suffrage was formed in 1907 in London by Brailsford,

Charles Corbett Charles Joseph Henry Corbett, BCL (1853 – 20 November 1935) was a British Liberal Party politician in the radical tradition who was part of a prominent family who supported women's rights. Family He was a son of C. J. Corbett of Thames Ditto ...

, Henry Nevinson,

Laurence Housman Laurence Housman (; 18 July 1865 – 20 February 1959) was an English playwright, writer and illustrator whose career stretched from the 1890s to the 1950s. He studied art in London. He was a younger brother of the poet A. E. Housman and his s ...

, C. E. M. Joad, Hugh Franklin,

Henry Harben Henry Harben may refer to: * Henry Eric Southey Harben (1900–1971), English cricketer * Sir Henry Harben (insurer) (1823–1911), British pioneer of industrial life assurance * Henry Andrade Harben (1849–1910), barrister, insurance company d ...

Gerald Gould Gerald Gould (1885 – 2 November 1936) was an English writer, known as a journalist and reviewer, essayist and poet. Life He was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and brought up in Norwich, and studied at University College London and Magdalen C ...

, Charles Mansell-Moullin,

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and be ...

and 32 others. Brailsford 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 Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

in 1907 and resigned from ''The Daily News'' in 1909 when it supported force-feeding of suffragette prisoners. He co-authored with Dr Jessie Murray, a

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the pre ...

and

, a report ''The Treatment of Women's Deputations by the Metropolitan Police'', over the violence of the Metropolitan Police during the Black Friday demonstration (18 November 1910). Over the next decade he wrote several books, among them ''Adventures in Prose'' (1911), '' Shelley, Godwin and their Circle'' (1913), ''War of Steel and Gold'' (1914), ''Origins of the Great War'' (1914), ''Belgium and the Scrap of Paper'' (1915) and ''A League of Nations'' (1917). In 1913–14 Brailsford was a member of the international commission sent by the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded i ...

to investigate the conduct of the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...

of 1912–13. He co-authored its report. He was a prominent member of the

Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World War ...

during the First World War and stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate in the 1918 general election. He subsequently toured

central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

and his graphic accounts of life in the defeated countries appeared in his books ''Across the Blockade'' (1919) and ''After the Peace'' (1920). Brailsford went to

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

in 1920 and again to the USSR in 1926, publishing two books on the subject. He was editor of the '' New Leader'', the ILP newspaper, from 1922 to 1926. He left the ILP in 1932 and through the 1930s was a regular contributor to ''

Reynold's News ''Reynold's News'' was a Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom, founded as ''Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper''Joanne Shattock, ''The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature'', p.2908 by George W. M. Reynolds in 1850, who became its first edito ...

'' and the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

''. Brailsford was an outspoken critic of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. His books in the 1930s include the anti-colonialist classic ''Rebel India'' (1931) and the anti-militarist ''Property or Peace?'' (1934). In the late 1930s, he was one of the few writers associated with the

Left Book Club The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948. Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acqui ...

, the ''

'' and ''

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on th ...

'' who was consistently critical of the Soviet

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so ...

s. Following the Soviet invasion of Finland, Brailsford published a hostile essay about Stalin in the left-wing ''Reynold's News'':

Stalin ... has compelled us to pass the judgement we had hitherto refused to register. His Russia is a totalitarian state, like another, as brutal towards the rights of others, as careless of its plighted word. If this man ever understood the international creed of socialism, he long ago forgot it. In this land the absolute power has wrought its customary effects of corruption.

During the Second World War, Brailsford penned a weekly column in ''Reynold's News''. He also continued to write books, the most important being ''Subject India'' (1943) and ''Our Settlement with Germany'' (1944). After his retirement from journalism in 1946, he wrote a history of the Levellers, which was unfinished at the time of his death. Paul Foot described Brailsford as "perhaps the best socialist writer in Britain at the time".Paul Foot,
New Statesman, Decline and Fall
, ''Socialist Review'' October 1996.

Personal life

He married a former student, the women's activist Jane Esdon Malloch in 1898 at his insistence. She denied him children and regarded the marriage as demeaning. They separated but she refused him a divorce.F. M. Leventhal, ‘Brailsford , Jane Esdon (1874–1937)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 10 Nov 2017
/ref> In 1928 he met the artist

Clare Leighton Clare Marie Veronica Leighton, sometimes Clara Ellaline Hope Leighton or Clare Veronica Hope Leighton, (12 April 18984 November 1989) was an English/American artist, writer and illustrator, best known for her wood engravings. Early life and educ ...

and they lived together for several years. His wife died in 1937 after years of drinking, and whereas this removed any legal obstacle to the couple being married, Brailsford, consumed by guilt, suffered an emotional breakdown, effectively destroying his relationship with Leighton who left for the US in 1939. In 1944 he married Evamaria Perlmann, a refugee from Germany, 40 years his junior. Brailsford was an advocate of

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the s ...

and was a

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

.Leventhal, F. M. (2003). ''The Last Dissenter: H.N. Brailsford and His World''. Oxford University Press. p. 45. In opposition to G. K. Chesterton he defended the practice of vegetarianism in ''The Daily News''. His fondness for animals was a lifelong trait and he found it easier to show affection to animals as they did not betray or disappoint him. He opposed blood sports and several of his essays allude to his friendship with cats.

Bibliography

* Broom of the War God: a novel (1898) * Some Irish problems (1903) * Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future (1906) * Treatment of the Women's Deputations by the police (1911), with Jessie Murray * The Fruits of our Russian Alliance (1912) * Shelley, Godwin and their Circle (1913) * The War of Steel and Gold: A Study of the Armed Peace (1914) * The Origins of the Great War (1914) * Belgium and the scrap of paper (1915) * A League of Nations (1917) * A Share In Your Motherland and other articles (1918) * Covenant of peace; an essay on the league of nations (1919) with an introduction by

Herbert Croly Herbert David Croly (January 23, 1869 – May 17, 1930) was an intellectual leader of the progressive movement as an editor, political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine ''The New Republic'' in early twentieth-century America. His pol ...

. * The Russian workers' republic (1921) * After the peace (1922) * The Pros and Cons of P.R. : A plea for reconsideration (1924) * Socialism for To-Day (1925) * The Living Wage (1926) * Families and incomes (1926) * How the Soviets Work (1927) * Olives of Endless Age : being a Study of this distracted world and its need of unity (1928) * Scrap Battleships! (1930) * Rebel India (1931) * If We Want Peace (1932) * Property or Peace? (1934) * Towards a New League (1935) * Voltaire (1935) * Spain's Challenge to Labour (1936) * Why Capitalism Means War (1938)
Democracy for India
(1939) * America our Ally (1940) * From England to America: A Message (1940) * The Habsburgs-Never again! (1943) * Subject India (1943) * Our Settlement with Germany (1944) * Making Germany Pay? (1944) * Fabian Colonial Essays (1945) introduced by A. Creech Jones, edited by

Rita Hinden Rita Hinden (16 January 1909 – 18 November 1971) was a South African social democratic activist. Born near Cape Town as Rebecca Gesundheit, she was always known as "Rita". When she was three years old, her family's ostrich farm failed, and ...

* The Life-Work of

J. A. Hobson John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption. His principal and ea ...

(1948) * Essays, Poems and Tales of Henry W. Nevinson, chosen from his works (1948) * Mahatma Gandhi (1948) with

Frederick Pethick-Lawrence Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence, PC (né Lawrence; 28 December 1871 – 10 September 1961) was a British Labour politician who, among other things, campaigned for women's suffrage. Background and education B ...

and Henry S. L. Polak. * The Levellers and the English revolution (1961), with

Christopher Hill (historian) John Edward Christopher Hill (6 February 1912 – 23 February 2003) was an English Marxist historian and academic, specialising in 17th-century English history. From 1965 to 1978 he was Master of Balliol College, Oxford. Early life Christop ...

Notes

References

* F. M. Leventhal, ''The Last Dissenter: H. N. Brailsford and His World'' (OUP, 1985) is an excellent biography.

External links

* *
Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future (1906)

* ttp://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/Brailsford/APTC.htm The War of Steel and Gold: A Study of the Armed Peace (1918)
How the Soviets Work (1927)The Federal Idea (1940)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brailsford, H. N. 1873 births 1958 deaths 19th-century English writers 20th-century English writers British animal rights activists British political journalists British vegetarianism activists English anti-fascists English socialists Independent Labour Party politicians People educated at the High School of Dundee People from Mirfield