John Hargrave - Kibbo Kift

Kibbo Kift

When World War I broke out, Hargrave joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, and saw action at the Battle of Gallipoli. Hargrave's Quaker pacifism was reinforced by the horrors of war. As a result, he broke with the Scout chief Robert Baden-Powell, who was in his view increasingly drawn to militarism, to form his own movement, the Kibbo Kift in 1920. Intended as a movement for all ages and genders, the Kibbo Kift remained fairly small, although some of its members were influential. The group took its name from an old Kentish term for a feat of strength and it attracted the likes of H. Havelock Ellis, Julian Huxley, H. G. Wells, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence to its ranks.

Hargrave met C. H. Douglas in 1923 and was convinced of the benefits of Social Credit, whilst Douglas admired the discipline and spirituality of the Kibbo Kift. Hargrave gradually incorporated the social credit theory into the Kibbo Kift, completing the process in 1927. Two years later in 1925 some south London co-operative groups challenged Hargrave's authoritarian tendencies over his refusal to recognise a local group called "The Brockleything" and broke away from the Kindred forming the still active Woodcraft Folk. This move resulted in a dramatic fall in membership. The split was also driven by Leslie Paul's desire to make the Kindred into the youth wing of the Co-operative Party, a group now firmly attached to the Labour Party.