The Clarion

The Clarion was a weekly newspaper published by Robert Blatchford, based in the United Kingdom. It was a socialist publication though adopting a British-focused rather than internationalist perspective on political affairs, as seen in its support of the British involvement in the Anglo-Boer Wars and the First World War.

Blatchford and Alexander M. Thompson founded the paper in Manchester in 1891 on a capital of just £400 (£350 from Thompson and Blatchford and the remaining £50 from Robert's brother Montague Blatchford). In it, he serialised his book, Merrie England, and published work by a variety of journalists, including George Bernard Shaw and the cartoonist Walter Crane. The Clarion Women's column was written initially by Eleanor Keeling Edwards and, from October 1895, as the Women's letters page by Julia Dawson, pen name of Mrs Myddleton-Worrall. It was Julia Dawson who pioneered the famous Clarion Vans which toured small towns and villages throughout England and Scotland from 1896 until 1929 spreading socialist propaganda.

A large number of associated clubs and societies (Cycling, Rambling, Choirs (Vocal unions), Handicraft, Field, Drama, and Cinderella clubs) connecting with the newspaper were created, of which the National Clarion Cycling Club still survives, as does the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, which began its life in 1911 as the Newcastle Clarion Drama Club. The Sheffield Clarion Ramblers were founded in 1900 by G. H. B. Ward, a Labour politician in Sheffield; it is recognised as the first working class rambling club, and is still in existence.

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