Henry Thomas William Sara (24 August 1886 – 19 November 1953) was an English

industrial unionist Industrial unionism is a trade union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in ...

active as an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

. Sara was born into a working-class family: his father, John Sara, was a draper's assistant. Henry's first jobs included being a glass blower, a process block maker and a brewery engineer. He was an omnivorous reader, and had a particular interest in

Darwinism Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...

and the novels of

Eugene Sue Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

. Although he was a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

, he developed an interest in

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...

and

theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

. He developed and presented

lantern slide The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a sin ...

shows on such themes as "Russia Today", "war and struggle in Germany", "The Paris Commune", "Epochs of Social Change", "The French Revolution", "Ireland", "The Life and Work of Lenin" and "The Fraud of Spiritualism". More than 1,500 of the slides he used in his lectures are archived in the

Modern Records Centre The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

Texts by Sara

"Our policy stated"
''The Herald of Revolt'', vol.III, no.4, May 1913
"The two classes"
''The Spur'', vol.1, no.9
"They speak for themselves"
"The Spur", vol.5, no.11, May 1919

References

External links

Catalogue of Sara's papers
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

Catalogue of the Maitland-Sara-Hallinan collection of political pamphlets and journals
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{DEFAULTSORT:Sara, Henry 1886 births 1953 deaths British syndicalists English Trotskyists English anarchists English communists Communist Party of Great Britain members Communist League (UK, 1932) members