Benjamin Lucraft (born 1809) was a famous craftsman chair-carver in London where his radical inclinations led him to be involved in many political movements.
Lucraft was a public advocate of Chartism and a founder member, and sometime chairman, of the "General Council of First International" of the International Workingmen's Association. He was the only working-class man elected to the first London School Board in 1870 where he campaigned for free education for all, among other issues. He was a member, or officer, in a wide number of radical political movements of the 19th century.
In 1874 he stood for election in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and in 1880 for Finsbury; in both elections he was unsuccessful but was one of the forerunners of the Lib-Lab candidates who had their first electoral success in 1874. He died in 1897.
Read more about Benjamin Lucraft: Early Life, Chairmaker, Temperance, Lucraft's Report On The Paris Universal Exhibition, Working Men’s Exhibitions, Political Life, Political Reform League, The International Working Men's Association, Parliamentary Reform, Fenianism, Basle Congress 1869, Resignation From The IWMA, Education For All, Peace and Other Issues, Contagious Diseases, Standing For Parliament, Death
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“The Great Spirit, who made all things, made every thing for some use, and whatever use he designed anything for, that use it should always be put to. Now, when he made rum, he said “Let this be for the Indians to get drunk with,” and it must be so.”
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