William Crawford Anderson (13 February 1877 – 25 February 1919) was a British
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
.
Born in 1877 at
Findon, Aberdeenshire
Findon (Gaelic: ''Fionndan'', Scots: ''Finnan'') is a fishing village eight miles south of Aberdeen, famous for originating the smoked haddock known as Finnan haddie. The Findon moor has a number of paths through it, many of which run along the ...
, the name Crawford in fact does not appear on his birth certificate. His father Francis Anderson was a blacksmith, who married in 1868, Barbara Cruickshank, an ardent radical; she being responsible for Anderson's education, she was an intelligent and widely read woman of strong,
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
,
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
views who encouraged William to read extensively. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed in Aberdeen as a manufacturing chemist and began to attend meetings of the local
Social Democratic Federation
The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...
(SDF), at this time he also followed
Tom Mann
Thomas Mann (15 April 1856 – 13 March 1941), was an English trade unionist and is widely recognised as a leading, pioneering figure for the early labour movement in Britain. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a ...
’s campaign for the by-election in 1896.
After listening to an eloquent speech by Carrie Martyn at an SDF meeting, he became intent on improving himself and began to read rigorously; he read everything from Dickens, Ruskin, Thackeray and Hardy, to name but a few.
Robert Blatchford
Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford (17 March 1851 – 17 December 1943) was an English socialist campaigner, journalist, and author in the United Kingdom. He was also noted as a prominent atheist, nationalist and opponent of eugenics. In the early ...
’s ''
Merrie England'' had a profound effect upon Anderson although he did not at this point consider himself to be a socialist, but advocated Land Nationalism.
The most influential figure in his transition to Socialism was
A. E. Fletcher, the editor of ''
The New Age
''The New Age'' was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938), inspired by Fabian socialism, and credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published ...
.'' Fletcher was running in the Glasgow elections supported by 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 ...
(ILP). In 1900 Anderson moved to Glasgow and volunteered to help Fletcher in the election; he in turn joined the Glasgow branch of the ILP and also the
Shop Assistants Union, then moved to the Manufacturing Chemists. The transition from radical to socialist politics was completed after Anderson's move to Glasgow, where he contested the
Camlachie
Camlachie ( gd, Camadh Làthaich) is an area of the city of Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th l ...
seat in the 1900
khaki election
In Westminster systems of government, a khaki election is any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment. In the British general election of 1900, the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was returne ...
on a pro-Boer platform, supported by the ILP. He was elected chairman of the Union after just three months. In 1902 he was the delegate of the ILP to the Manchester Conference. By 1903 he had become an organiser and official of the union with the aim of strengthening local branches and creating new ones, and was a major figure in the vigorous campaign of 1907 to improve the conditions of shop managers, before he left the union that year. In the same year he attended his first ILP conference and reinforced his reputation as a public speaker; he addressed audiences on a number of subjects ranging from
Tariff reform
The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competitio ...
,
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The l ...
, and key political issues. During his many addresses it is rumoured he was forced to do an encore by the audience, so he repeated part of his speech again. Still only in his early thirties, he was one of the best known leaders of the ILP. To reinforce this, he was elected to the National Administration Council of the ILP in 1908. His aim was to avoid a particular faction. It was noted in 1910 by
Fenner Brockway
Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (1 November 1888 – 28 April 1988) was a British socialist politician, humanist campaigner and anti-war activist.
Early life and career
Brockway was born to W. G. Brockway and Frances Elizabeth Abbey in ...
, whom Anderson influenced to take the job of editor of the Labour Leader, that Anderson was an ’influential member of the NAC, who stood midway between
Snowden and
MacDonald in their quarrels. He wanted to work with the Labour Party to smooth suspicions with which it regarded the ILP.’
In 1910 he was elected chair of the ILP, a position he held until 1913. In September 1911 he was appointed to the Chair of the committee to set up a new Labour newspaper, which became the ''Daily Citizen''. He acted as the Vice Chairman and leader writer. The paper was launched in 1912 but never flourished; Anderson left before it failed.
In 1913 he was the speaker for the special conference on the Public Transport Strike and in 1914 was a supporter of the Anti-War stance. The National Council of the ILP met to formulate a manifesto; Anderson read a draft which the council chose above Hardie's or Glasier's. Finally in 1914 on his third attempt he entered parliament; however he lost his seat in 1918 due to his opposition to war.
In 1919 he caught a chill which developed into
influenza
Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...
and he died not long after. He was cremated at
Golders Green
Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in England. A smaller suburban linear settlement, near a farm and public grazing area green of medieval origins, dates to the early 19th century. Its bulk forms a late 19th century and ea ...
. Anderson was survived by his wife, the trade unionist and women's rights campaigner
Mary Macarthur (whom he married in 1911; she d. 1921) and his daughter Nancy.
Scottish socialist politician
Bruce Glasier’s opinion of him was:
‘Most naturally gifted parliamentarian born front bench, and maybe Prime Minister. Neither a prophet nor a pioneer.’
References
Spartacus: William Anderson*Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees, ''Who's Who of British MPs: Volume II, 1886-1918''
*Dictionary of National Biography, J. Saville
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, William Crawford
1877 births
1919 deaths
People from Kincardine and Mearns
Independent Labour Party MPs
Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Politics of Sheffield
Scottish socialists
UK MPs 1910–1918
Chairs of the Labour Party (UK)