Who was the last Chartist?
Although Chartism had its heyday between 1838 and 1858, some of those who had been active in it lived on and continued to play a part in public life to the end of the century and beyond. One of the last of the Chartists was William Henry Chadwick (left). Imprisoned in 1848 at the age of 19 for his role in the Ashton-under-Lyne rising, he later became an itinerant speaker for the Liberal Party, and in the 1906 general election spoke on behalf of Will Thorne, the successful Labour candidate for West Ham South. He died in 1908 at the age of 80. But he was eclipsed by Henry Clubb of Colchester, who went on to be a Michigan state senator, living on until 1921.
