1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hyndman, Henry Mayers

13500701922 Encyclopædia Britannica — Hyndman, Henry Mayers

HYNDMAN, HENRY MAYERS (1842-1921), English socialist and author, was born in London, March 7 1842, the son of John Beckles Hyndman, a barrister and founder of the Hyndman Trust for church building. He was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge, afterwards becoming a war correspondent for the Pall Mall Gazette during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He had inherited wealth and he travelled extensively, using his pen always in defence of free institutions. In 1881 he founded the Social Democratic Federation in Great Britain and for many years was its chairman. During the 'eighties he was a prominent member of the Irish Land League and of the Land League of Great Britain. He took part in the unemployed demonstrations of 1887 and was put on trial for his share in the Trafalgar Square riot, but was acquitted. He opposed the South African War, took a prominent part in organizing the Second International in 1900, and from that date onwards was also active, both as speaker and writer, in advocating the grant of free institutions to India. But for some years before, as well as after, the outbreak of the World War, he uttered frequent warnings against the “German Menace.” He published many works on socialism, land nationalization and kindred subjects, as well as Records of an Adventurous Life (1911), Further Reminiscences (1912), and The Future of Democracy (1915). He died in London Nov. 22 1921.