John Gordon Hargrave nicknamed 'White Fox', was one of the leading figures in the Social Credit

Social Credit

Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...

 movement in British politics.

Early life

Born into an itinerant Quaker

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

 family, Hargrave was the son of painter Gordon Hargrave and his wife Babette Bing. He joined the Boy Scouts

Scouting

Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....

 in 1908. He soon became a devotee of the naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton

Ernest Thompson Seton

Ernest Thompson Seton was a Scots-Canadian who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America . Seton also influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting...

, and one of the leading Scout authorities on Woodcraft

Woodcraft

Woodcraft is a recreational/educational program devised by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1902, for young people based on camping, outdoor skills and woodcrafts. Thompson Seton's Woodcraft ideas were incorporated into the early Scout movement, but also in many other organisations in many countries.In the...

. He was educated at Hawkshead Grammar School

Hawkshead Grammar School

Hawkshead Grammar School in Hawkshead, Cumbria, England was founded in 1585 by Archbishop Edwin Sandys, of York, who petitioned a charter from Queen Elizabeth I to set up a governing body. The early School taught Latin, Greek and sciences, including arithmetic and geometry...

 and initially followed in his father's artistic footsteps, working as a cartoonist for C. Arthur Pearson Ltd whilst still in his teens.

Kibbo Kift

When 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...

 broke out, Hargrave joined the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

, and saw action at the Battle of Gallipoli

Battle of Gallipoli

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...

. Hargrave's Quaker pacifism

Pacifism

Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...

 was reinforced by the horrors of war. As a result, he broke with the Scout chief Robert Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....

, who was in his view increasingly drawn to militarism, to form his own movement, the Kibbo Kift

Kibbo Kift

The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift was a youth organisation in England from 1920 to 1951.-Origins:The organisation was founded by the charismatic Englishman John Hargrave , artist, author and Boy Scout Commissioner for Woodcraft and Camping, who had become disenchanted with the increasingly militaristic...

in 1920. Intended as a movement for all ages and genders, the Kibbo Kift remained fairly small, although some of its members were influential. The group took its name from an old Scottish term for a feat of strength and it attracted the likes of H. Havelock Ellis, Julian Huxley

Julian Huxley

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...

, H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...

 to its ranks.

Hargrave met C. H. Douglas

C. H. Douglas

Major C. H. Douglas MIMechE, MIEE, , was a British engineer and pioneer of the Social Credit economic reform movement.-Education and engineering career:...

 in 1923 and was convinced of the benefits of Social Credit, whilst Douglas admired the discipline and spirituality of the Kibbo Kift. Hargrave gradually incorporated the social credit theory into the Kibbo Kift, completing the process in 1927. Two years later in 1925 some south London co-operative groups challenged Hargrave's authoritarian tendencies over his refusal to recognise a local group called "The Brockleything" and broke away from the Kindred forming the still active Woodcraft Folk

The Woodcraft Folk

The Woodcraft Folk is a UK-based educational movement for children and young people, and registered charity no. 1073665. The constitutional object of this youth organisation is "to educate and empower young people to be able to participate actively in society, improving their lives and others'...

. This move resulted in a dramatic fall in membership. The split was also driven by Leslie Paul

Leslie Paul

Leslie Allen Paul was an Anglo-Irish writer and founder of the Woodcraft Folk.-Life:Born in Dublin in April 1905, Leslie Paul grew up in South East London...

's desire to make the Kindred into the youth wing of the Co-operative Party

Co-operative Party

The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom committed to supporting and representing co-operative principles. The party does not put up separate candidates for any UK election itself. Instead, Co-operative candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party as "Labour...

, a group now firmly attached 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...

.

Social Credit

The remaining Kibbo Kift began to become more militaristic in nature. Hargrave set up a Legion of the Unemployed in Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

 in 1930, and furnished them with green shirts and berets. By 1932, the Kibbo Kift were also in the green uniform, until finally Hargrave disbanded the Kibbo Kift and the Legion and renamed them the Green Shirt Movement for Social Credit. The movement soon became part of the street politics of the 1930s, engaging in battles with both Oswald Mosley's

Oswald Mosley

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...

 British Union of Fascists

British Union of Fascists

The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...

 Blackshirts and the supporters 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:...

.

Initially staying out of the electoral arena, Hargrave was impressed by the success of the Social Credit Party of Alberta

Social Credit Party of Alberta

The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....

 (Canada), and reconstituted the Greenshirts as the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was a political party in the United Kingdom. It grew out of the Kibbo Kift, which was established in 1920 as a more craft-based alternative for youth to the Boy Scouts....

 in 1935. Douglas opposed the entry of the movement into partisan politics. The party proved largely unsuccessful, and Hargrave soon travelled to Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, frustrated at the lack of progress that the Social Credit government there was making. He was appointed an economic adviser to the Government of Alberta, and was disowned by Douglas. He left Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1936, returning to find the Social Credit Party in disarray after the Public Order Act 1936

Public Order Act 1936

The Public Order Act 1936 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to control extremist political movements in the 1930s such as the British Union of Fascists ....

banned the wearing of uniforms by non-military personnel.

Hargrave and the party went on hiatus during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Hargrave did not serve in the war because he was too old for military service. During this time, he became convinced that he had the power of healing by the laying on of hands

Laying on of hands

The laying on of hands is a religious ritual that accompanies certain religious practices, which are found throughout the world in varying forms....

, and developed a variety of healing techniques.

Later activity

He returned to politics after the war and stood as a candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington in the 1950 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1950

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...

. The 551 votes he received convinced Hargrave to give up, and by 1951 he had disbanded the Party.

Largely retiring from public life, Hargrave resurfaced when he was commissioned to write the entry on Paracelsus

Paracelsus

Paracelsus was a German-Swiss Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist....

 for the Encyclopædia Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica

The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...

 (Hargrave had published The Life and Soul of Paracelsus in 1951). In 1976, he also forced a Public Enquiry by claiming that a moving map display fitted into the Concorde

Concorde

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...

 infringed on a prototype he had developed in the 1940s. Hargrave was largely proven correct in his assertion, although he was denied money on a technicality. Hargrave died on 21 November 1982, aged 88 at his home in Branch Hill Lodge, Hampstead.

Personal life

Hargrave married Ruth Clark

Ruth Clark

Ruth Clark was the author of the first woodcraft book for girls and co-founder of the Kibbo Kift....

, the daughter of the engineer William Clark on 28 November 1919. Their marriage produced one son although the couple were divorced in 1952. He remarried in 1968, his new wife being the actress Gwendoline Florence Gray.

Key published works

• Lonecraft (1913)
• At Suvla Bay (1916)
• The Wigwam Papers (1916)
• The Totem Talks (1918)
• Tribal Training (1919)
• The Great War Brings It Home (1919)
• The Confession of the Kibbo Kift (1927)
• The Alberta Report (1937)
• Words Win Wars (1940)
• Social Credit Clearly Explained (1945)
• The Life And Soul Of Paracelsus (1951)
• The Paragon Dictionary (1952)
• The Suvla Bay Landing (1964)
• The Facts of the Case Concerning the Hargrave Automatic Navigator for Aircraft (1969)