Mark Crail

Chartist Lives - now out in hardback, paperback and ebook formats.
#Chartism #C19th #BritishHistory 🗃️
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y

The mask was apparently in the personal collection of an Australian photographer named John Watt Beattie that ended up in the museum after his death in 1930. Quite how he acquired it I have no idea!
adb.anu.edu.au/biography/be...

If you ever wondered what the radical lawyer Henry Brougham, Whig Lord Chancellor at the time of the 1832 Reform Act, looked like, here’s his death mask, now on display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

If you ever wondered what the radical lawyer Henry Brougham, Whig Lord Chancellor at the time of the 1832 Reform Act, looked like, here’s his death mask, now on display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Memorial to the first English settlers to arrive in what became Hobart Town, between October 1803 and the end of 1804. The Palawa people had already been there for 40,000 years, but were forced off their lands, hunted, killed and exiled.

For others also wishing to delve into digital Hansard in search of white rabbits or anything else, our research guide to the available online versions may be of interest: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2022/02/09/a...

‘Footsteps’. Statues at Franklin Wharf, Hobart, commemorating the 13,000 women transported to Van Diemen’s Land, and the 2,000 children they brought with them, 1803-53
#C19th

Now Tasmania but then Van Diemen’s Land. A beautiful but brutal place.

Port Arthur penal colony. Transported Newport Chartist John Frost served for a time as clerk in the commandant’s office. Young Ireland leader William Smith O’Brian later lived in the house shown here.

No but there is the flag which survives at the trade hall from 1853 and is pictured in the blog post.

Eureka
Southern Cross
@markcrail.bsky.social

Remembering the 1853 Red Ribbon Rebellion in Bendigo I am currently in Australia, staying just outside the city of Bendigo in Victoria. Back in the 1850s this was the booming centre of a goldrush, growing from a small sheep station to a shantytown of…

Not at Castlemaine, but while I’m in Aus I am hoping to see a couple of the Chartist sites. See from yesterday chartistancestors.blog/2026/02/28/r...

Some lovely old buildings in Castlemaine, Vic, today #Australia

Remembering the 1851 Red Ribbon Rebellion in Bendigo I am currently in Australia, staying just outside the city of Bendigo in Victoria. Back in the 1850s this was the booming centre of a goldrush, growing from a small sheep station to a shantytown of…

New blog post:
Many Chartists made their way to Australia in the 1850s and contributed significantly to the country’s democracy movement. Their efforts have not been forgotten.
#Chartism #C19th
chartistancestors.blog/2026/02/28/r...

James Bronterre O’Brien, 1805 - 1864 - chartist ancestors Irish-born barrister known as the Chartist schoolmaster who made his name as a radical newspaper editor and served a prison term for sedition

London Working Men’s Association outlines principles to be embodied in the People’s Charter at a meeting #OnThisDay 1837. Bronterre O’Brien wrote: ‘I often despaired of Radicalism before; I will never despair again after what I witnessed on that occasion’.
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/james-bronte...

Commemoration of the Red Ribbon Rebellion in the Australian goldfields. Lots of Chartist involvement. The flag, first flown in 1853, now hangs in Bendigo Trades Hall (just round the corner from the stones). Could be the only surviving Chartist banner anywhere in the world!
#Chartism #C19th #History

I love the cover image for this special issue (which I may have had a hand in choosing). It shows 11 survivors of Peterloo assembled at Failsworth near Oldham in 1884 in support of parliamentary reform, and speaks to many of the themes contained in the special issue.

No doubt this is a disaster for Starmer and McSweenyism. But it’s worse for Farage. Voters split 2:1 in favour of progressive parties. Reform swept up the entire right-wing vote and still only got 28% in a seat they were supposed to be going to win.

Commemoration of the Red Ribbon Rebellion in the Australian goldfields. Lots of Chartist involvement. The flag, first flown in 1853, now hangs in Bendigo Trades Hall (just round the corner from the stones). Could be the only surviving Chartist banner anywhere in the world!
#Chartism #C19th #History

Called in at Bendigo Trades Hall (Victoria, Australia) and got a very friendly welcome from folks there. Great trade union history in the town dating back to gold rush days in the 1850s.
#tradeunions #tradeunionhistory

Out today, my new book about Margaret Bondfield, all-round ground-breaker and political pioneer is published by @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social and is available in both book and audio form. I am, obviously, very pleased about it!

I’d like that. (Well, to be honest, I’d probably hate it - all those Chartist breakfast powders and awful coffee substitutes, cleaning your boots with Chartist blacking, wearing a plaid of O’Connor tartan)! But in principle, I’d like that.

I like that the Bishop of London withdrew his support for enclosure. ‘More tea, vicar? And while you’re about it, you can read the message on the tea tray.’ Hopefully there was a set of tea cups to go with it. ‘Oh, and I’ve also got an antislavery antimacassar and a reform doormat, your reverence.’

George Julian Harney, among the first and last of the Chartists, editor of the Northern Star and Red Republican, was born #OnThisDay 17 February 1817. His story is told in Chartist Lives www.amazon.co.uk/Chartist-Liv...

Owenite socialist, Chartist land plan smallholder, Northern Star reporter and mutual insurance pioneer Thomas Martin Wheeler died #OnThisDay Monday 16 February 1862. His story is told in Chartist Lives www.amazon.co.uk/Chartist-Liv...

Owenite socialist, Chartist land plan smallholder, Northern Star reporter and mutual insurance pioneer Thomas Martin Wheeler died #OnThisDay Monday 16 February 1862. His story is told in Chartist Lives www.amazon.co.uk/Chartist-Liv...

List of topics: * Radicalism and Political Reform • Class and Chartism • Women's Participation in Chartism • Chartist Leaders and Activists • The Chartist Press • Chartism and Material Culture • Associational Life in the Age of the Chartists • Radical Agrarianism and the Land Plan • International Perspectives • Local and Regional Approaches • The New Poor Law (1834) and the Chartist Agenda • Biographical Studies

#ChartismDay #CallForPapers #CfP
Do you have research to share that touches on Chartism? Our call for papers sets out the sort of thing that might make the programme. Get in touch if you are interested.
sslh.org.uk/2026/02/12/c...

Thank you. Just a fun excuse to plug the book.

Cue blockbuster movie trailer voice-over:

This Valentine’s Day…

None of the greatest love stories ever told…

But don’t let that deter you…

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y