#peterhead

Slains Castle, UK (by Martin Bennie)

See more castles | historic buildings.

19th December 1865 James Leatham was born. 

Massively quotable, and Massively overlooked. Why? He was total maverick individual, and a Socialist to boot.

This quote…

‘All the organs of public opinion – press, Parliament, radio, pulpit, are in the hands of careerists who support the established order.’

….is still very true to this day.

Born in Aberdeen, Leatham was apprenticed to a printer aged 13 ½ and thus began a long life as printer/publisher/writer and editor. He was also a radical socialist from the 1880’s and notable for his commitment to worker’s rights and municipal housing. In 1890 he began publishing “The Workers Herald”: Scotland’s first socialist newspaper.

Leatham then worked in the North of England, editing many significant newspapers of the time including The Sentinel, The Worker, and Halifax and District Labour News. It’s probably another reason he is not so well known in his native Scotland. Hr seems to have hopped between the North of England and Scotland a lot.

In 1892  Leatham explained why Class War is inevitable under Capitalism;  

“The Theory of Socialism is that the Division of Society into Classes renders Social Warfare inevitable – that the Poverty of the Poor is caused by the Robbery on the part of the Rich.  The Mansion explains the Hovel. The Factory, the Foundry & the Shipbuilding Yard account for the Shooting Lodge, the Yacht, & the Tours in Foreign Lands. The Long Day’s Toil of one Class renders possible the Lifelong Leisure of the other … ”

In 1897  he founded and was editor of the “Peterhead Sentinel”, a local newspaper, then back down to England, Yorkshire this time working on other socialist newspapers.

He moved to Turriff in 1916 and served on the Town Council from the 1920’s. He became Provost in 1933 and retained that position until his death. His extensive writings in the fields of politics, history and literature were mostly produced as penny pamphlets. He also wrote the first biography of William Morris, the 19th century English textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist.