Remembering Richard Carlile
I thought this little-known fact about the Peterloo Massacre (see CA 357) really important when I came across it recently. It raises the whole issue of how / why people are remembered, and the frequent unfairness of it all.
Everyone with an interest in this shocking event will certainly know the name of Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt – that’s taken for granted – but have you heard of Richard Carlile? When you hear the importance of the part he played, you’ll marvel as I do at how he has been written out of the story. I first heard of the Massacre as a student in wartime, but have only just learnt Richard’s name at the age of 94.
Richard and his wife, Jane, first came to my notice thanks to a talk by Bob Forder of the National Secular Society in Gosport, a place with a tenuous claim to Richard in that he was married to Jane there. His importance lies in the fact that later he earned a living as one of the printers in the Fleet Street area of London, so hated by the authorities at that time for their support of the views of Thomas Paine expressed in his book, The Rights of Man. He and Jane were frequently imprisoned for their activities.
Sherds: East meets West