The beards of Victorian Socialist leaders: H M Hyndman v William Morris
Noting a tweet from well-known hirsute socialist Michael Rosen that his father’s grandfather had complained that H M Hyndman was not radical enough I suggested that this may have been because he was a supporter of William Morris.
Hyndman was the leader of Britain’s first Marxist Party, the Social Democratic Federation but Morris and a number of others split from in 1885. They disliked Hyndman’s style of leadership and the League was a broader organisation including anarchists and some Fabians.
While Engels was a firm opponent of Hyndman and happy about the SDF split he was no more optimistic about the League’s prospects.
That said Hyndman had one of the most iconic of Victorian socialist beards and indeed it features on the Beard Liberation Front banner.
Morris has been called on twitter the ‘god father of East End hipsters’ but the BLF says Morris was more complex than this suggests.
He grew his beard in 1856 and kept it for the last 40 years of his life. It was as much a part of the man as his fiery temper, socialist politics and love of ancient buildings.
BLF organiser Keith Flett said, when he died in 1896 his doctor said he died simply of being William Morris and his beard was an integral part of that. As for Hyndman, he ended up backing the First World War underlining that his beard was ultimately not progressive.
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