Albert Inkpin

Albert Inkpin (16 June 1884 – 1944) was a British communist and the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He served several terms in prison for political offences. In 1929 he was replaced as head of the CPGB and made head of the party's Friends of Soviet Russia organisation, a position he retained until the time of his death.

Albert Inkpin was born on 16 June 1884 in London. Inkpin was employed as a clerk and was a member of the National Union of Clerks from 1907.

Inkpin became Marxist and joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1906 and was chosen as an Assistant Secretary the following year. He followed the SDF into the new British Socialist Party (BSP) in 1911, continuing in an Assistant Secretary capacity in that new organization.

In 1913, Inkpin was elected the General Secretary of the BSP. Inkpin was a committed internationalist and anti-militarist, an opponent of World War I, and a delegate to the Zimmerwald Conference. This placed him at odds with former SDF leader H. M. Hyndman's support of the British participation in the conflict. This tension between the Left and Right the BSP ended in 1916 with Hyndman and his co-thinkers departing the group. Inkpin assumed the editorship of the BSP's weekly newspaper, The Call at this time.

Inkpin and the more radical elements were thus in a position of firm control of the BSP organisation after 1916 and were well able to join the unity discussions which led to a Communist party in Great Britain in 1920.

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