Victor Grayson
Victor Grayson, the son of a carpenter, was born
in Liverpool on 5th
September, 1881. As a child he suffered from a stammer and was teased
about it at school. At the age of fourteen he ran away from home and
attempted to stow away on board a ship bound for Australia. After four
days at sea he was discovered and returned to his parents. In 1899 Grayson started work as an apprentice engineer in Bootle, Lancashire. He joined the union and over the next couple of years became very interested in the emerging socialist movement. Grayson learnt about politics by reading The Clarion, Justice and The Labour Leader. He also attended meetings of the Socialist Debating Society at the Liverpool Mission Hall and later joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP).
Grayson also became a member of the Unitarian Church in Liverpool. The local minister recognised Grayson's potential and helped him to get a place at Owen's College, Manchester as a divinity student. The long-term plan was for Grayson to become a Unitarian minister.
In Liverpool Grayson developed a reputation as a surberb orator. Most days he could be found standing on his soap box giving lectures on socialism. The university authorities became concerned about Grayson neglecting his studies and asked one of the ILP leaders, Philip Snowden, to speak to him. Snowden was unable to persuade Grayson to continue his studies. Grayson told Snowden that the university was a "make-believe refuge" and he intended to work in the real world. Over the next couple of years Grayson toured the industrial districts giving lectures on socialism. His reputation grew and he was seen as a future leader of the newly formed Labour Party.
In January 1907, the Independent Labour Party in Colne Valley selected Victor Grayson as their parliamentary candidate. In the past, there had been an arrangement where the labour movement supported the Liberal Party candidate in Colne Valley in return for help in winning other seats for ILP candidates. The executive of the Labour Party therefore decided not to endorse Grayson as their candidate. Colne Valley ILP refused to back down and in the by-election held in July, 1907, Grayson stood as an Independent Socialist candidate.
The leadership of the Labour movement were angry by the unwillingness of the Independent Labour Party in Colne Valley to follow the orders of the National Executive. Convinced that the Liberal Party would win the seat, very few of the national figures in the ILP helped Grayson during his campaign.
Although the Independent Labour Party was committed to the parliamentary road to socialism, during the election, Grayson advocated revolution. In his election address Grayson wrote "I do not believe that we are divinely destined to be drudges. We must break the rules of the rich and take our destinies into our own hands." Grayson used his skills as an orator to create a wave of emotion in Colne Valley and this is reflected by the fact that 88% of the electorate voted. Sensationally, Grayson obtained 153 more votes than the Liberal Party candidate and won the election.
Grayson was angry that the national leadership had been unwilling to support his campaign in Colne Valley and refused to join the Labour Party group in the House of Commons. In fact, Grayson rarely attended Parliament, preferring to tour the country making speeches in favour of revolutionary socialism. Of over 300 debates that took place in the Commons while he was the Colne Valley MP, Grayson only voted in 32. Grayson behaviour in Parliament was also becoming more erratic and it became clear that he had a serious drink problem.
In November 1908 Grayson attended a debate on a proposed new Licensing Bill. Grayson interrupted the debate by standing up and shouting "I wish to move the adjournment of the House so that it can deal with the unemployment question. People are starving in the streets." When Grayson refused to sit down the Speaker ordered the Serjeant-at-Arms to remove him from the House of Commons. Grayson turned to the leaders of the Labour Party and shouted: "I will gladly leave! You are traitors to your class."
After this incident Grayson rarely visited the House of Commons. At first the people of Colne Valley were pleased that they had an MP that spoke up for the unemployed. However, they were less impressed by stories his luxurious life-style and his heavy drinking. In the 1910 General Election Grayson was easily defeated by the Liberal Party candidate at Colne Valley.
Without a seat in the House of Commons, Victor Grayson attempted to make a living from lecture tours. Still drinking heavily, his health began to deteriorate and in 1913 had a mental breakdown. Grayson gave up alcohol and went on a sea-cruise and for a while his health began to recover. He was now strong enough to start a lecture tour in America. This went well until he started drinking again. Grayson returned to Britain but he was now an alcoholic and at public meetings in Bradford and Glasgow he was to drunk to speak and had to be carried off the stage.
Grayson shocked his radical friends by supporting the First World War. He gave recruiting speeches and wrote articles urging young men to join the armed forces. In 1915 Grayson travelled to New Zealand where he had been offered work as an actor. However, this was not a success and he joined the New Zealand army. He was sent to the Western Front and on 12 October 1917 was badly wounded.
After the war Victor Grayson returned to England where he hoped to revive his political career. Without the backing of any of the major political parties, Grayson found it impossible to become a parliamentary candidate. Grayson returned to the lecture tour and at a meeting in Liverpool he accused David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, of corruption. Grayson claimed that Lloyd George was selling political honours for between £10,000 and £40,000. Grayson declared: "This sale of honours is a national scandal. It can be traced right down to 10 Downing Street, and to a monocled dandy with offices in Whitehall. I know this man, and one day I will name him."
The monocled dandy was Arthur Maundy Gregory, an MI5 agent and a close friend of David Lloyd George. For several months Gregory had been employed by Sir Basil Thompson, Head of the Special Branch, to spy on Grayson. The politician had found out about this and decided to do some spying on Gregory. With the help of some important friends, Grayson discovered that Lloyd George was using Gregory to sell honours.
At the beginning of September 1920, Victor Grayson was beaten up in the Strand. This was probably an attempt to frighten Grayson but he continued to make speeches about the selling of honours and threatening to name the man behind this corrupt system. On the 28th September Grayson was drinking with friends when he received a telephone message. Grayson told his friends that the had to go to Queen's Hotel in Leicester Square and would be back shortly.
Later that night, George Flemwell was painting a picture of the Thames, when he saw Grayson entering a house on the river bank. Flemwell knew Grayson as he had painted his portrait before the war. Flemwell did not realize the significance of this as the time because Grayson was not reported missing until several months later. An investigation carried out in the 1960s revealled that the house that Grayson entered was owned by Arthur Maundy Gregory.
Grayson was never seen alive again. It is believed he was murdered but his body was never found. After Grayson's death Arthur Maundy Gregory continued to sell honours for the next twelve years. Gregory was involved in arranging for the forged Zinoviev Letter to be published that helped to defeat the Labour Party in the 1924 General Election.
In 1932 Gregory attempted to sell a knighthood to Lieutenant Commander Edward Leake. He pretended he was interested and then reported the matter of Scotland Yard. Gregory was arrested but he turned it to his advantage as he was now able to blackmail famous people into paying him money in return for not naming them in court. Gregory pleased guilty and therefore did not give evidence of his activities in court. Arthur Maundy Gregory was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and a fine of £50. On leaving prison Gregory was persuaded to live in Paris where he was paid a pension of £2,000 a year by the Conservative Party.
(1) W. F. Black, The Labour Leader (1906)
Victor
Grayson has a deep rich voice, just made for the open-air and he
gave his audience plain, strong, and richly-defined Socialism. Nothing
petty or mean, no appeal to unworthy motives, or even the misery of
things, but an uplifting, elevating, manly propaganda speech, addressed
to the crowd as men. In Victor Grayson, student and orator, the
Manchester men have found a prize indeed, and Socialism has gained
another valuable asset.
(2) Fred Jowett, Clarion (2nd October, 1908)
Men
are now described as traitors by Victor Grayson who undertook the
task of founding a Socialist Movement at a time when the chilling frost
of almost universal indifference was far harder to bear than are the
violent alternations between the excitement of hostility and the
enthusiasm of fellowship in which Victor Grayson now lives and moves.
We must recognise that the man who can make a crowd shout is not necessarily an organizer of men. The gift of platform oratory, skill in making striking phrases, is a dangerous one. It is the man behind that matters. If his skill is employed in setting, not class against class, but men of the same class against their kith and kin, sewing seeds of distrust and hatred where the love of a common cause should produce the fellowship of kindred spirits, it were better if he had no such skill.
We must recognise that the man who can make a crowd shout is not necessarily an organizer of men. The gift of platform oratory, skill in making striking phrases, is a dangerous one. It is the man behind that matters. If his skill is employed in setting, not class against class, but men of the same class against their kith and kin, sewing seeds of distrust and hatred where the love of a common cause should produce the fellowship of kindred spirits, it were better if he had no such skill.
(3) Edward Carpenter, My Days and Dreams (1916)
Victor
Grayson was a most humorous creature. His fund of anecdotes was
inexhaustible, and rarely could a supper party of which he was a member
got to bed before three in the morning. On the platform for detailed or
constructive argument he was no good, but for criticism of the enemy he
was inimitable - the shafts of his wit played like lightening round
him, and with his big mouth and flexible upper lip he seemed to be
simply browsing off his opponents and eating them up. His disappearance
from public life has been quite a loss.
Victor Grayson
Albert Victor Grayson (September 5, 1881 - prob. 1920)
was an English socialist politician of the early 20th Century.
Albert Victor Grayson (September 5, 1881 - prob. 1920)
was an English socialist politician of the early 20th Century.
He was born in Liverpool and became an apprentice engineer. Although he had a stammer he became a noted orator. He joined the Independent Labour Party and toured the country giving lectures. In 1907 he stood as an Independent Labour candidate in the Colne Valley by-election, having been nominated by the local branch of the Independent Labour Party. He won a sensational albeit narrow victory. Grayson was paid an allowance by the ILP but refused to sign the Labour Party constitution.
Grayson rarely attended parliament and began to develop a drink problem. After losing his seat in Parliament in 1910 and failing to even retain his deposit when standing for Kennington he continued his lecture tours but suffered a mental breakdown in 1913.
He alienated many of his left wing colleagues by backing Britain's entry into World War I and turning his oratorical skills to recruiting soldiers. He served briefly in the New Zealand Army and was wounded.
After the war, Grayson attempted to resurrect his political career. He accused David Lloyd George of selling honours, correctly as it later turned out.
In 1918 Sir Basil Thompson, Head of the Special Branch, asked a man called Arthur Maundy Gregory to spy on Victor Grayson. Grayson held left-wing views and was suspected of working as an agent for the new communist government in Russia. It was also feared he might be working for the Irish Republican Army.
Victor Grayson discovered that Gregory was spying on him and decided to do some research into the spy's background. With the help of some important friends, Grayson found out that the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George was using Gregory to sell political honours. At a public meeting in Liverpool, Grayson accused Lloyd George of corruption. He claimed that Lloyd George was selling political honours for between £10,000 and £40,000. Grayson declared:
"This sale of honours is a national scandal. It can be traced right down to 10 Downing Street, and to a monocled dandy with offices in Whitehall. I know this man, and one day I will name him."
Grayson's comments about the "monocled dandy with offices in Whitehall" let Gregory know that he was in danger of being exposed. At the beginning of September 1920, Victor Grayson was beaten up in the Strand. This was probably an attempt to frighten him, but he continued to make speeches about the selling of honours and threatening to name the man behind this corrupt system.
On the 28th September Victor Grayson was drinking with friends when he received a telephone message. Grayson told his friends that he had to go to the Queen's Hotel in Leicester Square and would be back shortly. Later that night, George Flemwell was painting a picture of the Thames, when he saw Grayson entering a house on the river bank. Flemwell knew Grayson as he had painted his portrait before the war. Flemwell did not realize the significance of this at the time because Grayson was not reported missing until several months later. An investigation carried out in the 1960s revealed that the house that Grayson entered was owned by Arthur Maundy Gregory.
Grayson was never seen alive again. It is believed he was murdered but his body was never found. It was speculated that Grayson had been murdered to prevent his revealing evidence of corruption, although the most comprehensive biography (by David G. Clark) points to his possible survival to the 1950's. Some of Grayson's most fanatical supporters insist that he was the only true socialist ever to sit in Parliament.
See also:
Arthur Maundy Gregory
Sidney Reilly
Vernon Kell
Basil Thompson
Zinoviev Letter
Berlusconi & Blair