Cecil L'Estrange Malone
Encyclopedia
Cecil John L'Estrange Malone (7 September 1890 — 8 June 1965) was Britain's first communist member
of the House of Commons.
, Yorkshire
on 7 September 1890, a rector's son, he joined the Royal Navy
in 1905 and attended the Royal Naval College
at Devonport
. In 1912 he learned to fly and gained his Royal Aero Club
certificate (No. 195) on 12 March. He played a pioneering role in naval aviation
and rose to become a Commander
, and later a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army
. He saw action in World War I
, commanding HMS Ben-my-Chree
, for which he was awarded the Order of the Nile
.
, although he later claimed never to have actually joined the Liberal Party
. He was also awarded the Order of the British Empire
. By August 1919 he was advertising Pelman "memory" courses throughout the national press.
On 13 September 1919, with a passport
endorsed by the British Foreign Office in hand, Cecil Malone embarked on the S.S. Arcturus for Helsingfors. There Malone, who intended to visit Soviet Russia
despite the blockade
of the country, unexpectedly met up with another individual planning on crossing over to Petrograd. After traveling by sea and land to the border, the pair managed to cross the frontier through deserted forests and marshland by foot, arriving at the Soviet border on Sunday, 28 September. The two arrived in Petrograd by train at 6 pm the following day.
Malone met and spoke with key leaders of the trade union
movement in Petrograd before proceeding by train to Moscow. In Moscow, Malone met with Maxim Litvinov
, then a top official in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, with whom he had a long discussion. He later met for an hour with foreign minister Georgii Chicherin
.
Malone's new friends arranged for him to accompany Red Army
leader Leon Trotsky
on an inspection of troops at Tula
aboard Trotsky's special train. Accompanying Malone on the trip were the head of the Supreme Council of National Economy (VSNKh), Alexei Rykov
; chief of food supply for the Russian Republic, Alexander Tsiurupa; and People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky.
During his visit, detailed in his memoir, Malone toured factories and theatres, power stations and government offices. He found the mission of the Bolshevik
government in attempting economic reconstruction to be compelling and emerged from his trip a committed communist. "The history of Allied negotiations and transactions with Russia appears to have been a chain of catastrophes and mistakes" he wrote:
Upon his return to England, Malone became active in the Hands Off Russia campaign, and in November 1919 he officially joined the proto-Communist British Socialist Party
(BSP). Malone was soon being elected to the party's leadership through the patronage of Theodore Rothstein
. In the summer of 1920, the BSP became the main constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain
(CPGB), and as a result, Malone became the first CPGB MP. He attended the London Communist Unity Convention held 31 July and 1 August 1921, at which he was elected to the new party's governing Central Committee.
Malone's sudden conversion to revolutionary politics was not universally believed. John Maclean claimed that Malone was a counter-revolutionary sent to disrupt the workers' movement, and he refused to speak alongside Malone.
Official CPGB historian James Klugmann saw Malone as one of the leading figures in the party's first year of existence:
The line which landed Malone in jail related to his argument that during a revolutionary crisis, excesses might occur resulting in the killing of some prominent members of the bourgeoisie
. "What are a few Churchill
s or a few Curzon
s on lampposts compared to the massacre of thousands of human beings?", Malone asked his audience. Despite Malone's prosecution, the Communist Party did not disavow Malone's rhetorical flourish, going so far as to publish an official party pamphlet entitled What are a Few Churchils? in January 1921. Malone was stripped of his OBE
.
Malone married in 1921 and worked to promote the affiliation of the CPGB to the Labour Party
, which was under consideration as a tactical matter, urged by Lenin. Malone was particularly keen, and stated "There are still a few differences between the Communist Party and the Labour Party. I am glad to realise, however, that this will soon be settled by affiliation".
Malone later left the CPGB and to join the Independent Labour Party
, which was affiliated to the Labour Party. He unsuccessfully stood as the Labour candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne
at the 1924 UK general election, but was elected in the Northampton by-election, 1928 and held the seat until the 1931 UK general election.
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Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of the House of Commons.
Early years
Born in Dalton HolmeDalton Holme
Dalton Holme a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire in England. It is situated to the north west of the market town of Beverley and covering an area of ....
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
on 7 September 1890, a rector's son, he joined the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1905 and attended the Royal Naval College
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
at Devonport
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
. In 1912 he learned to fly and gained his Royal Aero Club
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...
certificate (No. 195) on 12 March. He played a pioneering role in naval aviation
Naval aviation
Naval aviation is the application of manned military air power by navies, including ships that embark fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. In contrast, maritime aviation is the operation of aircraft in a maritime role under the command of non-naval forces such as the former RAF Coastal Command or a...
and rose to become a Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
, and later a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. He saw action in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, commanding HMS Ben-my-Chree
HMS Ben-my-Chree
HMS Ben-my-Chree was a packet steamer and a Royal Navy seaplane carrier of the First World War. She had originally been built as a fast passenger ferry for the Isle of Man Steam Packet — the third to bear her name — in 1907 by Vickers for the England–Isle of Man route...
, for which he was awarded the Order of the Nile
Order of the Nile
The Order of the Nile is Egypt's highest state honor. The award was instituted in 1915 by Sultan Hussein Kamel to be awarded by Egypt for exceptional services to the nation...
.
Political career
In the 1918 UK general election, Malone joined the anti-communist Reconstruction Society and was elected as the Coalition Liberal MP for Leyton EastLeyton East (UK Parliament constituency)
Leyton East was a parliamentary constituency in the Municipal Borough of Leyton, then part of Essex but now in Greater London.It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.-History:The constituency...
, although he later claimed never to have actually joined the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
. He was also awarded the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
. By August 1919 he was advertising Pelman "memory" courses throughout the national press.
On 13 September 1919, with a passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
endorsed by the British Foreign Office in hand, Cecil Malone embarked on the S.S. Arcturus for Helsingfors. There Malone, who intended to visit Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
despite the blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
of the country, unexpectedly met up with another individual planning on crossing over to Petrograd. After traveling by sea and land to the border, the pair managed to cross the frontier through deserted forests and marshland by foot, arriving at the Soviet border on Sunday, 28 September. The two arrived in Petrograd by train at 6 pm the following day.
Malone met and spoke with key leaders of the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement in Petrograd before proceeding by train to Moscow. In Moscow, Malone met with Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet diplomat.- Early life and first exile :...
, then a top official in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, with whom he had a long discussion. He later met for an hour with foreign minister Georgii Chicherin
Georgy Chicherin
Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin was a Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician. He served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from March 1918 to 1930.-Childhood and early career:...
.
Malone's new friends arranged for him to accompany Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
leader Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
on an inspection of troops at Tula
Tula, Russia
Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...
aboard Trotsky's special train. Accompanying Malone on the trip were the head of the Supreme Council of National Economy (VSNKh), Alexei Rykov
Alexei Rykov
Aleksei Ivanovich Rykov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician most prominent as Premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924–29 and 1924–30 respectively....
; chief of food supply for the Russian Republic, Alexander Tsiurupa; and People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky.
During his visit, detailed in his memoir, Malone toured factories and theatres, power stations and government offices. He found the mission of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
government in attempting economic reconstruction to be compelling and emerged from his trip a committed communist. "The history of Allied negotiations and transactions with Russia appears to have been a chain of catastrophes and mistakes" he wrote:
"...[I]t seems there was a culpable lack of foresight in visualizing the forces behind the Revolution. Every effort was made by Lenin and Trotsky to bring about peace with the Allies. They were prepared to refuse to sign the Treaty of Brest-LitovskTreaty of Brest-LitovskThe Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
with GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and instead to continue the fight on the side of the Allies, but the Allies refused to recognize them... Various interventional operations, mostly carried out on the plea of protecting Russia against the invasion from Germany, were inaugurated, but really, as we now see, they were carried out in the interests of the capitalist class in Russia. It seems incredible that such slender excuses for intervention should have been allowed to hold good for so long.... [N]ow we find ourselves supporting partisan leaders in Russia by the supply of arms and munitions at the expense of the British taxpayer, and in addition we find our Government carrying on an inhuman and illegal blockade against the Russian people, the result of which during the coming winter months will indeed be terrible."
Upon his return to England, Malone became active in the Hands Off Russia campaign, and in November 1919 he officially joined the proto-Communist British Socialist Party
British Socialist Party
The British Socialist Party was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw the defection of its pro-war Right Wing...
(BSP). Malone was soon being elected to the party's leadership through the patronage of Theodore Rothstein
Theodore Rothstein
Theodore Aronovich Rothstein was a journalist, writer and communist. He served as a Soviet ambassador in the 1920s.- Life :Theodore Aronovich Rothstein was born 1871 in the Imperial Russian city of Kovno , the son of a Jewish family.Rothstein left Russia in 1890 for political reasons and settled...
. In the summer of 1920, the BSP became the main constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
(CPGB), and as a result, Malone became the first CPGB MP. He attended the London Communist Unity Convention held 31 July and 1 August 1921, at which he was elected to the new party's governing Central Committee.
Malone's sudden conversion to revolutionary politics was not universally believed. John Maclean claimed that Malone was a counter-revolutionary sent to disrupt the workers' movement, and he refused to speak alongside Malone.
Official CPGB historian James Klugmann saw Malone as one of the leading figures in the party's first year of existence:
"In the first months of the Party's existence Col. Malone was very active not only in Parliament, but addressing mass meetings and rallies all over the country. Whatever his theoreticalTheoretician (Marxism)A theoretician is a term from the vernacular of Marxism relating to an individual who observes and writes about the condition or dynamics of society, history, or economics, making use of the main principles of Marxian socialism in the analysis....
weaknesses, he was a man of passion, moved by the revolutionary tremors that were shaking the world, full of wrath and indignation against the powers that be, and after a fiery speech in the Albert Hall on November 7, 1920, he was charged with seditionSeditionIn law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
under Regulation 42 of the Defense of the Realm Act... After a courageous self-defense he was sentenced to six months in the Second Division."
The line which landed Malone in jail related to his argument that during a revolutionary crisis, excesses might occur resulting in the killing of some prominent members of the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. "What are a few Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
s or a few Curzon
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC , known as The Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and as The Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman who was Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary...
s on lampposts compared to the massacre of thousands of human beings?", Malone asked his audience. Despite Malone's prosecution, the Communist Party did not disavow Malone's rhetorical flourish, going so far as to publish an official party pamphlet entitled What are a Few Churchils? in January 1921. Malone was stripped of his OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
.
Malone married in 1921 and worked to promote the affiliation of the CPGB to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, which was under consideration as a tactical matter, urged by Lenin. Malone was particularly keen, and stated "There are still a few differences between the Communist Party and the Labour Party. I am glad to realise, however, that this will soon be settled by affiliation".
Malone later left the CPGB and to join the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
, which was affiliated to the Labour Party. He unsuccessfully stood as the Labour candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne (UK Parliament constituency)
Ashton-under-Lyne is a constituency centred on the town of Ashton-under-Lyne that is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
at the 1924 UK general election, but was elected in the Northampton by-election, 1928 and held the seat until the 1931 UK general election.
Later life
After the death of his first wife, Malone remarried in 1956. He died on 8 June 1965, aged 74.External links
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