Rev Dr Charles Leach was the one Member of Parliament who lost his seat for being of 'unsound mind'. Worsted to Westminster follows him from an eight year old in a Halifax worsted mill to his breakdown under the dual pressures of being a wartime Army Chaplain and a backbencher, enthusiastically supporting the great reforming Liberal government as it pushed through the Parliament Act, and the National Insurance legislation.
Though living in a slum, he escaped the mill to train as a clog and shoemaker. His rise came through the Methodist New Connexion, and later the Congregational, churches to become a prominent preacher, and his innovative Sunday afternoon lectures in Birmingham Town Hall were capable of attracting 4000 people. He still found time to write some 20 books, edit newspapers, and be a guide for Thomas Cooks conducting parties to the Holy Land. Against all the successes were a series of family tragedies, losing his mother when only five, and four of his six children.
Politics was another way to aid the poor and the 'working man', leading him to oppose Joseph Chamberlain's divisive tactics, and flirt with the newly formed Independent Labour Party. Returning to the Liberals he won Colne Valley, defeating the maverick socialist Victor Grayson. His involvement with so many causes gives a fascinating insight into the history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There was far more to his life than his forced departure from Parliament, and this biography puts the record straight.
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It was a big step, but by 16th August he decided he was ready, and wrote to Keir Hardie. First he invited him to come and give an address at one of his Sunday afternoon lectures at Queen's park; then he added: 'I have come at least to accept your programme as set forth in the penny tract from your pen, and am sincerely thinking of joining the Independent Labour Party if you will have me. Such influence as I possess, and it is considerable in religious circles all over England, I think I ought to use in the interests of the class from which I spring and amongst whom I toil.' Hardie wrote straight back suggesting a date, and also promising him a warm welcome, but warning him that there could well be consequences when the move became public. Charles Leach replied that he thought that he knew what would happen and it was not so bad. 'It is more appalling to me to see the desperate condition in which so many of the wealth producers find themselves than it can be to vote against either Liberal or Tory, or to abstain from voting for either. I shall know that I did one or the other to further the interest of the toilers…If my acceptance by your party – and I am prepared to follow the lead of a man who is led by his New Testament – should add strength to it I shall be glad.'
Within a couple of days he was returning the signed 'Declaration of Adherence' and asking where his subscription should be sent. He added: 'The seven items of Programme on page two make up the most Christian programme I have seen in a long time. With my New Testament in my hand I can expand and defend them in any assembly in the world where civilised men assemble…'
On 25th August Keir Hardie wrote a column in his Labour Leader about Dr Leach, clearly pleased at his conversion, and explaining the history since their little contretemps two years before. 'Bit by bit Dr Leach has been developing and has now reached the conclusion that the logical outcome of his Master's teaching is Socialism, and that the ILP offers the best and most effective means of realising it. May many who are hesitating be led to follow his example.' On 9th September Keir Hardie went to Queen's Park and gave his talk, which allowed them to meet afterwards over a cup of tea and quietly get to know each other. Hardie was off to America and there would not be another opportunity.
That year the Congregational Union held its autumn meeting in Liverpool, but Charles Leach didn't cause any controversy. He did speak, as an ILP member, at a fringe meeting organised by the Christian Socialist League which seemed an obvious organisation for him, particularly as it was led by Rev John Clifford, the prominent Baptist who had his chapel not far away along Harrow Road at Westbourne Park. Despite being from different denominations, the two men had much in common, including membership of the Geological Society.
At the beginning of November he was interviewed by the British Weekly about his involvement with the ILP. He laid out the policies that he found distinctly Christian: arbitration instead of war; work for the workless; free elementary, secondary, and university education; provision for the aged poor other than the workhouse; the eight hour day; and collective ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. He claimed that most of these he had been preaching all his life, and that was undoubtedly true for the first few in the list, but it was the last that showed a change in his position. He had listened to Henry George and had concluded that land should be in common ownership as long as this could be done with proper compensation, but that collective ownership should be general, was a big step along the road to socialism. On the other hand he disapproved of the 'violent and determined opposition to the Liberal Party, even in cases where the Liberal candidate is thoroughly at one with us on social questions.' Though he was associating himself with the ILP, he still had not quite let go of the Liberals, particularly as at that time the distinctions between Radical Liberals, and Labour were often quite fine.
In the normal course of events his membership of Chelsea Vestry would have continued until 1895, but the Local Government Act of 1894 had changed the system and the whole Vestry had to be re-elected in December. He put his name forward to stand again; under his new colours. There had been grumblings in the chapel about his involvement with the ILP, but this was a step too far. In early December there were two withdrawals from the poll, Sir Charles Dilke and Rev Charles Leach. It was worse than that, as he was also forced to leave the party. Keir Hardie wrote: 'And so we have lost our only DD. From time to time mutterings have reached me which foreshadowed what has now happened. Dr Leach will probably realise now more fully than he did at the time what my letter meant in asking whether he had realised all it meant to join the ILP. He thought he did and was prepared for anything. Now he finds there was something for which he was not prepared. I am glad all the same he has been with us. In future he will be more powerful as an outside ally than he ever could have been as an insider. When men have passed their fortieth year and are bound by ties and associations it is no easy matter to break from them. If all I hear is true Dr Leach's deacons after the manner of their kind were making it very uncomfortable for him and would not hear of his running on the ILP ticket.'
Thus ended his membership of the ILP, which had lasted less than four months. Once again it had been his political activities that had got him into trouble with his church.