Kmflett's Blog

Bronterre O’Brien (1804?-1864) died at his Islington home on 23rd December 1864 after a long illness. He was buried at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington on New Year’s Eve 1864. His gravestone remains and occasional gatherings are held to mark his impact on British radical politics. The last oration was given by Diane Abbott in 2023 and I delivered one myself some years back now.

O’Brien was Editor of the Poor Man’s Guardian in the 1830s and wrote for the Chartist Northern Star in the 1840s. He was not a co-thinker of Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor and often struck different positions to mainstream Chartism.

Looking back 160 years it is however perhaps his legacy in the formation of the Labour and socialist politics that currently exists that is of most note. He was arguably the only one of the Chartist leaders to inspire an active group of co-thinkers to carry on his work. Many were present at his funeral. We know that they persisted because in his book Early Socialist Days, W S Sanders writing about the Battersea branch of the SDF in the 1880s noted the presence of a group of old Chartists who were followers of O’Brien. The SDF was one of the organisations that met to form the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and hence the Labour Party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bronterre_O%27Brien

Bronterre O’Brien’s funeral, The Beehive 7th January 1865

THE FUNERAL OF MR. JAMES BRONTERRE O’BRIEN, B.A. The mortal remains of the above named gentleman were interred in Abney Park Cemetery, N., on Saturday, Dec. 31, in the presence of a numerous assemblage of faithful friends. The body was borne from the chapel to the grave by the following named gentlemen : Messrs. Flexman, Davidson, Radford, Shaw, Blair, and Boutnell. The pall was supported by Messrs. Rogers, Forbes, Baker, Weston, Matthews, and Townsend. The chief mourners were Messrs. James Murray, P. Brown, Messenger, Turnbull, J. Lee, and Charles Benzing. The funeral arrangements were under the charge of Mr. Charles Murray. Addresses were then delivered at the grave by the following personal friends and disciples of the deceased, Messrs. Charles Benzing, James Murray, John Radford, J. Rogers, and Charles Murray. The expressions of sorrow at the loss of their revered teacher, of love and devotion to him personally, and for the immutable doctrine that he taught, their account of his principles, .persecutions, sacrifices, and sufferings; above all, of his unflinching and heroic struggle (extending over a period of 35 years) for the political and social rights of the masses, were heartfelt and, impressive. At the conclusion a large proportion of those assembled walked up to the grave, and, with hands extended over it, pledged themselves in the most solemn manner to a lifelong adherence to, and zealous propagation of, the doctrines taught by the deceased.