Blatchford, Robert Peel Granville (1851–1943). English socialist and nationalist. Author and journalist, Blatchford wrote for the British newspaper the Sunday Chronicle 1885–91, before co-founding the Clarion in 1891, a popular socialist weekly, which he edited for 20 years. He had become a socialist as a result of his revulsion at the conditions of the slums of Manchester, but his socialism was uneasily combined with a fierce nationalism arising out of his seven years' service in the army. He became involved in the labour movement, and used the Clarion as a vehicle for his socialist views conveyed in a low-brow style of writing, pitched to working-class and lower middle-class readers. Blatchford's socialism was the homely message of William Morris, not the revolutionary doctrine of Karl Marx, and it was so successfully transmitted that it spawned a host of organizations—such as the Clarion Scouts, the Clarion Field Clubs, and the National Clarion Cycling Club—established to promote socialist fellowship. Blatchford became leader of an influential group within the labour movement—the Clarionettes, siding with the Social Democratic Federation against the Independent Labour Party. His most important book Merrie England (1894), which sold over 2 million copies, has been described as the best recruiting document ever produced by socialists in Britain. However, Blatchford's nationalistic beliefs gradually pulled him away from the labour movement. His support for the Boer war alienated fellow-socialists, and his advocacy of conscription, when war broke out in 1914, finally severed his connections with the labour movement.

Tim S. Gray