Henry
Hyde Champion,
the son of Major-General J. H. Champion, was born in India on 22nd
January, 1859. He attended Marlborough College and after achieving
a military commission in the Royal Artillery served with distinction
in the Second Afghan War.
In 1881 he returned to England after becoming ill with typhoid. While
recovering in Portsmouth
Henry Champion read a great
deal, including Progress and Poverty
by Henry George, the Communist
Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels and several books by John Stuart Mill.
These books radicalized Champion and he began to question Britain's
foreign policy. In 1882 Champion resigned from the British Army in
protest at its Egyptian campaign.
Henry Champion now described himself as a Christian
Socialist and in 1882 became editor of the journal, the Christian
Socialist. He also joined the Social
Democratic Federation (SDF) and showed his commitment by giving
the party £2,000. H. H. Hyndman,
the leader of the SDF, appointed Champion as editor of the organisation's
newspaper, Justice.
In the 1885 General Election,
Champion and Hyndman, without consulting their colleagues, accepted
£340 from the Conservative Party
to run parliamentary candidates in Hampstead and Kensington. The objective
being to split the Liberal vote and therefore
enabling the Conservative candidate
to win. This strategy did not work and the two SDF's candidates only
won 59 votes between them. The story leaked out and the political
reputation of both men suffered from the idea that they were willing
to accept "Tory Gold".
In 1886 the Social
Democratic Federation became involved in
organizing strikes and demonstrations against low wages and unemployment.
After one demonstration that led to a riot in London,
Champion, H.
M. Hyndman and John
Burns, were arrested but at their subsequent trial they
were all acquitted.
Champion, a Christian Socialist, objected
to Hyndman's atheism. He was also concerned by Hyndman's support of
violent revolution. Champion's criticisms of H.
H. Hyndman resulted in him being expelled from the SDF in 1887.
He joined the Fabian Society, and although
he respected the ideas of George Bernard Shaw
and Annie Besant, he was disappointing by
their lack of interest in forming a working-class political party.
In 1888 Champion, John Burns and Tom
Mann formed the Labour
Elector. Edited
by Champion, the paper campaigned for the eight-hour day, denounced
bad employers and criticised trade union Liberal
MPs in the House of Commons. The Labour
Elector argued strongly for a new working-class party with
strong links to the trade union movement.
As well as writing about industrial disputes, Champion also helped
to organize them, and in 1888 joined with Annie
Besant and her socialist journal, The
Link, to help the Matchgirls
Union defeat the Bryant & May
company. The following year Champion emerged with Ben
Tillett, Tom Mann and John
Burns as one of the leaders of the London
Dock Strike.
Champion had argued for a long time that the British working-class
needed a political party that would provide an alternative to the
Social Democratic Federation. He therefore
fully supported the formation of the Independent
Labour Party in 1894. However, trade unionists in the organisation
were suspicious of Champion because of his privileged background.
At a conference in Manchester in February
1894, references were made to Champion's involvement with the Conservative
Party in the 1884 General Election and
delegates suggested that he was not to be trusted.
Henry
Hyde Champion
was so upset by these comments he left the Independent
Labour Party and emigrated to Australia where he stayed until
his death in 1928.
(1) Tom
Mann, Memoirs (1923)
Henry Hyde Champion was about my own age, an ex-artillery officer,
a foremost member of the SDF, taking part in all forms of propagandist
activity, showing keen sympathy with the unemployed. He had a fine,
earnest face, and a serious manner in dealing with the sufferings
of the workers. Champion, being a man of vigorous individuality, and
genuinely devoted to the movement, could not always wait to get his
views as to various forms of propagandist activity endorsed by a committee.
He would act upon his own initiative, and commit the organization
to plans and projects without consultation. Naturally this would give
rise to strong expressions of opinion, frequently of an adverse character,
arising from the natural human dislike to being pitch-forked into
a project, however excellent, without having any reasonable opportunity
for consideration.
(2) Ben
Tillett, Memories and Reflections (1931)
Our principal Press Officer (during the 1889 Dock Strike) was the
socialist journalist, Henry Hyde Champion, one of the founders of
the Fabian Society. Although he was in no way officially connected
with the strike, he rendered us very valuable help. In some ways Champion
was a remarkable man. The son of a Major-General and himself had served
as an artillery officer, after leaving university. But he had abandoned
the military career for journalism, and attached himself to the Socialist
Movement.
(3) Henry Hyde Champion's obituary
in The
Times (2nd May, 1928)
Champion was an exceedingly able writer and the wielder of a caustic
pen. He had, however, the temperament of an aristocrat and an inborn
sympathy with Conservative traditions, both of which prevented him
from really understanding and sympathizing with the minds of the masses
whom he endeavoured to lead.
(4)
While working for the Sydney Bulletin in Australia, David
Low got to know H. H. Champion.
Who
in 1915 would have identified the mild old gentleman, editor of a
tiny literary monthly, walking tremulously with the aid of two sticks
in the Melbourne sunshine, with the determined young ex-artillery
officer H. H. Champion of the 1880s, who introduced John Burns and
Keir Hardie to political life, and who with Burns and Hyndman led
a riotous mob of unemployed through London's clubland, leaving a trail
of broken windows? No one, I wager. Illness, disappointment and age
had long since withdrawn Champion from politics to books. But he retained
an interest in justice and right. Whenever I did a cartoon which in
content departed from the strictly sane view I was sure next day to
run into Champion, advancing slowly down the street like a conscience.
He would stop, look me in the eye, smile gently and say, "Not
quite, David, do you think?" Very effective criticism, coming
from that old war-horse.
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