Whilst working on the Co-operative Union Photographic collection, I unexpectedly came upon a photograph of Richard Burton performing in ‘A Subject of Scandal and Concern’, a 1960 play written by John Osborne for the BBC. Burton, who as a young man had worked in the Co-op tailoring department, played the part of George Jacob Holyoake, a central figure in the development of the co-operative movement in the nineteenth century, and one of the last individuals to be imprisoned for blasphemy in a public speech in the United Kingdom.

Holyoake's portrait which sits just outside the Co-op archive reading Room in Holyoake House. This has a QR code to access further information about this man the building is named after.

George Jacob Holyoake

George Jacob Holyoake was the son of an engineer and began working as an apprentice tinsmith. In 1831 he joined the Birmingham Reform League, beginning an active participation in political and social movements. This involvement led him to attend meetings addressed by Robert Owen (1771-1858). Owen was a leading social reformer and known as the father of Co-operation and he greatly influenced Holyoake, who went on to collect Owen's papers which are now held at the Co-op Archives in Manchester. In 1837 Holyoake began lecturing on socialism and co-operation. 

Holyoake became a writer, a journal editor, bookseller and publisher. He wrote numerous journal articles, books and many pamphlets on co operative subjects. As a journalist, his main aim in writing about the co-operative movement was to inspire rather than to record history and many of his writings seek to give supporters an enthusiasm for co-operation. His autobiography 'Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life' gives an interesting view of the nineteenth century's radical movements. He also wrote a history of the Rochdale Pioneers.

As one of the promoters of the first of the modern Co-operative Congresses in 1869; he attended and spoke at many Congresses, editing the reports of the third to the fifth and presiding at the seventh. Holyoake was an eloquent orator who addressed most noteworthy co-operative occasions.

 

'The History of the Rochdale Pioneers' by George Jacob Holyoake with a dedication from Holyoake to George Healy, 1894. GJH Book Collection, Co-operative Heritage Trust.

In his later years, the co-operative movement viewed Holyoake as a link with their heritage and the movement's past. On his death, many societies contributed to provide a memorial -  a building in Manchester to provide headquarters for the Co-operative Union. For its first 30 years, the Co-operative Union (now Co-operatives UK) had worked from rented offices. Holyoake House (named in his memory) opened in 1911 and included offices, meeting rooms and a library.

That the building which houses the National Co-operative Archive be named Holyoake House, should come as no surprise then, containing as it does, a portrait of the influential co-operator. I have often glanced at this dour representation of the man on my way to the Co-operative Heritage Trust’s reading room; Holyoake’s face staring back at me with a stern, seemingly stilted Victorian respectability.

The Trial Play

The photo I found of Richard Burton playing Holyoake is much more animated as indeed, was the life of Holyoake himself. I was curious to learn more about the trial. Thankfully, the BBC play can currently be found online and I was lucky enough to find a secondhand copy of the play in book form. So, on a dark autumnal evening I gave it a watch. 

Copy of John Osborne's play 'A subject of Scandal and Concern' GJH Book Collection, Co-operative Heritage Trust.

Holyoake is on his way to give a lecture at the Cheltenham Mechanic’s Institute and drops in to see his wife, who is currently lodging with her sister. He remarks on his wife’s frailty, and she in turn later describes the sickness and malnourishment of their child. The impression given is that Mrs. Holyoake is somewhat neglected by her sister’s family, and that this neglect is in no small part due to their dislike of Holyoake for harbouring “improper” views. 

In the play's next scene, Holyoake responds to a question put to him by an audience member following his Cheltenham lecture. Mr. Maitland asks what role the church and morality should play in Holyoake’s vision of communal based living. Holyoake responds:

"Our national debt is a millstone around the poor man’s neck, and our church and general religious institutions cost about twenty million pounds annually. Worship is expensive, and so I appeal to your heads and your pockets: are we not too poor to have God? If poor men cost the state as much, they would be put, like officers, on half pay. And while our present distress remains, it is wisest to do the same thing with Diety".

When pressed further, Holyoake admits:

“I regard morality, but as for God, Mr. Maitland, I cannot bring myself to believe in such a thing.” 

Although Holyoake’s evening lecture ends with no incident or hint of controversy, this is later reported in the Cheltenham Chronicle 

... "[Holyoake] delivered a lecture on Socialism, or, as it has been appropriately termed, devilism ... [he] professed no religion at all and that they [the workers] were too poor to have any. He did not believe that there was such a Being as God and impiously remarked that if there was, he would have the Deity served the same as the Government treated subalterns, by placing Him upon half pay. To their lasting shame, be it spoken, a considerable portion of the company applauded these profane opinions." 

And in a subsequent article, the newspaper writes:

"In reference to a paragraph which appeared in the last Chronicle regarding the monster, Holyoake, the magistrates read the article alluded to and expressed the opinion that it was a clear case of blasphemy"..

The stage is set for Holyoake’s arrest, trial and ensuing incarceration, which the remainder of the play dramatises in act two (trial) and three (prison). Holyoake wrote about these experiences in his autobiography, and it is interesting to see comparisons between Holyoake’s own account and Osborne’s play.

Holyoake's account of his trial. GJH Book Collection, Co-operative Heritage Trust.

I found the play's end the most thought provoking. The narrator does not give his own verdict on Holyoake’s trial, stating that the information has been put forward and the viewer must draw their own conclusions, but states,

“if you are waiting for the commercial, it is probably this ...

... you cannot live by bread alone. You must have jam. Even if it is mixed with another man’s blood”. 

This well-known biblical proverb is a call to arms against a system that forces many people to live on barely enough to survive which was the reality for a large portion of the mid-Victorian population, especially the working class, where even basic things like food were often unsafe or mixed with cheap, harmful substitutes. Providing pure, unadulterated food at fair prices and at fair weights was behind the set up of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Co-operative store on Toad Lane.

Though I am more a student of History rather than of English Literature, I don’t feel dramatists need to be (or indeed should be) strictly historically accurate record, provided an overarching spirit of truth is conveyed. The way in which Osborne portrays themes of sacrifice seem well judged, and the play was an interesting means of discovering more about the person behind the Holyoake portrait (much more can be said regarding the trial itself, and Holyoake’s – or indeed Richard Burton’s – performance in defending himself in court, but that is best left for another blog post).