Benjamin Lucraft - Political Life

Political Life

Lucraft had taken an interest in political reform which would benefit the situation of the working classes. Through the middle years of the 19th century there were myriad organisations which campaigned across a whole range of issues. Lucraft was active in a large number of these organisations, often taking office in them and representing their interests, both in London and abroad.

During these years it is often possible from newspaper records to say where he was speaking at or chairing meetings on three, four or five evenings a month and probably more besides those reported in the press.

One document says Lucraft joined Attwood's Political Union in 1829, before he came to London.

Lucraft became the secretary and most prominent member of the North London Political Union, a Chartist group which met in Islington and which George Howell attended. He was a speaker on the circuit of the Wheatsheaf Yard Temperance Society organised, by Howell on the Wesleyan model, which lectured all over London. Dyer also records Lucraft's active membership, from 1850, of Richard Cobden's Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association.

In the spring of 1848 Feargus O'Connor decided on a new strategy that would combine several different tactics: a large public meeting, a procession and the presentation of a petition to the House of Commons. O'Connor organised the meeting to take place at Kennington Common on Monday, 10 April 1848. Lucraft was reported to have been at the great demonstration, which was the strongest meeting of supporters of the Chartist Movement. He was reported as one of the chairmen of the Charter Conference

Lucraft ended his life close to James Bronterre O'Brien, the leader of the Chartists, as they are both buried in Abney Park Cemetery north of Kingsland Road where Benjamin spent his working life.

George Howell wrote a handwritten note about Lucraft's life and activities which survived in the papers of the Bishopsgate Institute and is re-produced here:

"Mr Lucraft may be described as almost the last surviving link between the old Chartist movements prior to 1850, and the newer political movements which grew out of the Chartist agitation towards the end of the fifties and onward until the Reform Act of 1884. Lucraft was one of the earliest I heard speak after coming to London, Mr Ernest Jones being the first as already stated. Often and often have I stood by Lucraft in what was then known as the Copenhagen Fields, and also in a meeting place in Chapel Street Islington. I became more closely associated with Mr Lucraft in Temperance work in 1856 and 1857, from which dates we have been old friends and close associates. He was among the first members of the Reform League and was a member of the Council and the Executive from the first. He was never a very effective speaker, but he was able always to put his points forcibly, because he knew what he wanted and could see tolerably clearly the way in which it could be obtained. In his earlier days he was thought to be an implacable Chartist, and nothing else; but he was not the man to oppose reform because all that he desired was not granted. Lucraft was sternly devoted to "principles", but he acknowledged the value of compromise when it was a question of something or nothing. He was unswerving in his advocacy of chartism and teetotalism. From 1850 to 1860 he was one of the few that kept the lingering embers of the chartist movement alive, by blowing it, so that if it did not light up very much you could still see the sparks, and feel some of its warmth. Next to chartism pure and simple, that is "the six points", he was an ardent advocate of Land Law Reform and of Technical Education, and was one of the promoters of, and exhibitors at the first Workman's Exhibition in the Agricultural Hall in 186_ (sic).

After the dissolution of the Reform League in 1869, Lucraft became an ardent advocate of the Education policy of the National Education League, and was rewarded by being selected as on eof the candidates for, and duly elected as one of the Members of the London School Board for the Division in which he had always lived – the old Borough of Finsbury. The excellence of his work on the School Board for London is now admitted by everybody. He especially left his mark in connection with the questions of Technical Education, and the use of London Charities. Although strongly in favour of a purely secular system of education, he was a staunch supporter of the compromise arrived at in the earlier history of the Board. Mr Lucraft always took an independent view, and would not become a mere party man in all occasions.

The other question was the substitution of Arbitration in lieu of war, a Peace Policy for all nations. He was one of the first members of the Workman's Peace Association, and was for some years its chairman. Lucraft was a true and loyal colleague, in council and out of it. He would never condescend to be in cliques, though his good nature sometimes was used for such purposes. But as soon as he saw the drift he manfully resumed his independent attitude. His regularity and punctuality were proverbial. Lucraft was at his post. In the open air, at meetings, or in the Committee Room, he was on duty. I think he loved speaking for its own sake, and yet he could sit quietly and record his vote if silence was thought to be best. But "in the Park", or in Trafalgar Square, or on his own more familiar ground – Clerkenwell Green – Lucraft was always to the front, and I must add was always welcome. Lucraft was much respected for his high character in the Borough in which he lived, which was testified again and again by his repeated re-elections to the School Board for London."