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EDWARD CARPENTER, GEORGE MERRILL, and THE POLICE INVESTIGATION for INDECENCY |
| The Edward Carpenter Archive by Simon Dawson |
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EDWARD CARPENTER, GEORGE MERRILL, and THE POLICE INVESTIGATION for INDECENCY |
| The Edward Carpenter Archive by Simon Dawson |
in May 1909 Herbert Gladstone MP, the Home Secretary, received a letter making a complaint of indecency against Edward Carpenter. This triggered a Police investigation, both into Carpenter's books, and into his private life with George Merrill.
There can be a tendency to present Carpenter's life with Merrill as some form of rural gay idyll, but that is far from the case. George Merrill was a child of the slums and had been at times almost a gigolo, and some of that behaviour persisted into his new life.
These web-pages tell the story of that police investigation, reconstructed from a Home Office file still available in the National Archive at Kew, London. I think this story has value for two reasons.
- Firstly, they present a more accurate picture of Carpenter's life with Merrill. There are descriptions of Carpenter's attempts to secuce a 21 year old farm-hand, and Merrill's unsiccessful attempts at cruising the locals.
- Secondly, they help us to understand the social attitudes to homosexuality at that time; the attitudes held both by civil servants in Whitehall, and (a less-told story) the attitudes of farmhands in rural Derbyshire.
This web-page is split into 3 sections
- The story of the police investigation into Carpenter and Merrill, triggered by Mr O'Briens letter to the Home Secretary.
- Mr O'Brien's other interactions with Carpenter in Derbyshire, and the stress this caused.
- What this story can tell us about social attitudes at the time.
The letter to Herbert Gladstone was sent by a Mr O'Brien, a rubber-stamp maker who lived in Dronfield, a village a few miles from Millthorpe. O'Brien objected to Carpenter's promotion of a homosexual life and had been making life difficult for Carpenter in Sheffield for some time. He now wanted to take his campaign to London.
Page 1 of Mr O'Brien's original 38 page letter
The letter started as follows
My dear Sir,
In the enclosed pamphlet you will find evidence that a man called Edward Carpenter, who lives only a few miles from here, is one of the leading spirits in a secret society of a political character composed of persons bound together by homosexual practices carried on amongst themselves,
What I want to ask you before going any further is this plain question - supposing that you have reasons given for believing that this man is one of the leaders of a criminal and a secret society bent upon destroying civilisation, will it then be your duty to take action against him?
Sexual inversion spells ruin for any country, and any man who advocates it and spreads the practice of it among the people of these islands is doing infinitely more mischief to human society than the greatest criminal hung and unhung.
The letter continued for 38 more pages. See Here for a transcription of the full letter, and Here for images of the orginal manuscript.(pdf document))
O'Brien repeatedly refers to a privately-published pamphet which he produced to counter Carpenter's arguments.
I am already spending between fifteen and twenty pounds of my own savings in printing and circulating pamphlets against the man. Nearly all the copies of these pamphlets are given away in order to get them into the hands of the public; for booksellers and newsagents dare not sell them. So that I am not doing this for material gain. I am doing it because I know that it is my duty before God and man to do it.
The copy he enclosed is still in the Home Office file.
Mr O'Brien's Privately Pubished Pamphlet
See Here for images of the orginal manuscript.(pdf document)
The thoughts and reactions of the civil servants in Whitehall are recorded in various "minute notes" within the file. This seems to have been an ongoing conversation between the Director of Public Prosecutions' office (DPP) and the Secretary of State's Office (S of S) within the Home Office.
On 6th July a Mr Guy Stevenson in the DPP's office wrote:
I certainly think that the papers should be referred to us officially, and if the publications complained of could be sent with the papers, so much the better. At present, there are only the extracts supplied by Mr O'Brien.
We can request the C.C [Chief Constable] to obtain specimens for us if you have any difficulty getting them. But they must be obtained before we can be in a position to consider the question of likely criminal proceedings, if the S of S desires us to take steps.
On 2nd of July a Home Office minute stated:
"This is not a very helpful letter. The allegations made by Mr O'Brien are serious: (1) that Carpenter advocates unnatural vice and (2) that he is forming a society which indulges in it.
See Mr Guy Stevenson's notes within. I asked whether the DPP had heard of the case, as Mr O'Brien says that he intended to write to the DPP.
See extract from the British Medical Journal about "The Intermediate Sex" a book written by Carpenter.
Obtain copies of "Iolaus" and "The Intermediate Sex" and "Loves Coming of Age". Ask C.C. Sheffield if he can obtain the pamphlet called "Homogenic Love". The copies to be obtained by an officer of the C.I.D. [Criminal Investigations Department]. Then refer the papers to the DPP for any action that is possible.
The file then documents how the books were obtained. The published books were obtained direct from the publisher in London. A manuscript copy of Homogenic Love had to obtained from Mr O'Brien by the Sheffield Police. Homogenic Love was a privately printed exploratory pamphlet produced in 1894, but The Intermediate Sex is Carpenters major public work on homosexuality, produced over a decade later in 1908. The file also holds a copy of the BMJ review of "The Intermediate Sex".
This was a possible risk for Carpenter. In his major published works he had been very careful about how he referred to physical sexual acts, bearing in mind these were criminal acts at the time. But he said of Homogenic Love "only a few copies were printed and those privately, for the simple reason that the pamphlet was not intended for general circulation, but only in order to be sent to a few scientific friends, for the purpose of comparing notes and obtaining more information on a subject then new to me." . And in this pamphlet he had discussed sexual acts more explicitly (by Victorian values).
On 3rd August 1909 the DPP submitted his observations, having studied the books.
If a man writes a series of books about "Homogenic love" in which he urges the repeal of section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, he must not be surprised if bad motives are attributed to him, even if he professes to deprecate excesses.
Mr O'Brien maybe a crank, but this not dispose of the case. Some of the books have gone through several editions, and cannot fail to have done a good deal of harm: it is a pity that a well-known firm should publish them. There is no doubt a good deal to be said for not calling public attention to the matter, but these are not obscene publications, read only by a few. There has already been a severe review in the "British Medical Journal". The case recalls that of Havelock Ellis.
It is alleged that Carpenter practices as well as preaches.
Send papers to the Chief Constable of Derbyshire, for confidential enquiry and report.
And on 13th August the S of S office responded
Yes, it is the charges of indecent practices and incitement to such practices that should be specially bought to his notice, and the enquiries should be made very discreetly.
(It is most unfortunate that the DPP cannot see his way to do anything to check the publication of this mischevious filth in Mr Carpenter's books. It must do a great deal of harm - The more that the grosser side of the subject is kept discreetly in the background. The difficulty of dealing with such stuff by prosecution seems to indicate that this censorship, so far from being withdrawn from the drama should be extended to literature.)
The instructions to the Derbyshire Chief Constable were issued on 24th August
Home Office, Whitehall
Confidential
Sir,
I am directed by the Secretary of State to forward to you herewith communications which he has received from one Mr O'Brien of Dronfield near Sheffield, with regard to Edward Carpenter the author of "Homogenic Love" and other books, and to ask you to favour him with a confidential report on the matters therein referred to and particularly on charges of indecent practices and of incitement to such practices, which appear in the letter of July 1 addressed by Mr O'Brien to Counsellor Whiteley. It is important that the necessary enquiries should be made very quietly and discreetly.
The letter to Counsellor Whiteley referred to is not in the file, although other letters by O'Brien are there, and they are all very similar in tone and content to the original letter dated 16th May.
The Chief Constable's reply was received three days later
I beg to forward a report from Supt. Andrew of this Force, dated 26th June last. I did not see my way to take any action on this report because the alleged offences took place such a long time ago.
You will observe that the same names are mentioned by Mr O'Brien in his letter to the Superintendent and in his letter to you.
Observation is being kept on the Merrill and Carpenter but I am anxious to get a strong case before taking any proceedings.
Supt. Andrew's report is in three parts, a report on Andrew's own investigation, a statement by a Mr George Levick, and a copy of a letter from O'Brien to Andrew naming potential witnesses. See Here for a transcription of the various documents, and Here for images of the orginal set of statements (pdf document). They are fascinating, and help to give a more nuanced picture of Carpenter and Merrill's life in Millthorpe.
Although the report from Sheffield described homosexual behaviour by Merrill, and possibly by Carpenter, it was decided that there was not sufficient evidence to take proceedings forward.
28 August 1909, S of S Minute Note
Most of the statements about Merrill relate to incidents which occurred several years ago. There is no direct evidence against Carpenter; but Merrill is his servant, and the two lived together alone.
The statements within make it clearer even than it was before what are the views underlying Carpenter's books.
In returning these papers the Chief Constable should be told that S of S would be glad to know if any fresh evidence is obtained. But first DPP to see.
There is also a note dated 31st August, which I presume is by the DPP, as it is in same handwriting as Guy Stevenson above.
Seen. No action possible upon the statements taken.
S of S staff then documented what actions to take to bring the current investigation to an end.
1 September 1909, S of S Minute Note
? Write to Chief Constable as proposed, keeping copies of the enclosures.
Return Mr O'Brien the enclosures as desired, and say S of S has made a careful enquiry, and consulted the DPP, but on the information now before him does not see his way to take any action.
The final document in the file is a letter from the Home Office to the Chief Constable of Derbyshire dated 6th September
Sir,
I am directed by the Secretary of State to thank you for your letter of the 27th ultimo in the case of Edward Carpenter and to return of the enclosures contained therein.
The S of S has referred the papers to the DPP who agrees that at present there is no evidence present to justify proceedings - the incident is however one of considerable importance, and you should keep a discrete watch as is reasonably practical, on the proceedings of the persons concerned.
If and when any fresh evidence is obtained in the case, the Secretary of State would be glad to be informed.
I am, Sir, Your obedient servant.
Whilst the Police investigation may have been the most dangerous risk to Carpenter or Merrill, it is possible they were entireley unaware of it. O'Brien's more direct complaints about Carpenter in Derbshire were however very obvious, and were causing him a great deal of stress.
This narrative is taken almost exclusively from Sheila Rowbotham's biography of Carpenter - EDWARD CARPENTER - A Life of Liberty and Love.
Rowbotham describes how O'Brien was a member of the right-wing "Liberty and Property Defence League". He was obsessively hostile to both socialism and homosexuality. In 1908 he had started to speak against Carpenter in various meetings in and around Sheffield, and in 1909 started to distribute his pamphlet "Socialism and Infamy" around the villages local to Millthorpe. The pamphlet described Carpenter's many visitors, and their "morbid appetites, naked dancing, corruption of youth, paganism and socialism".
Carpenter's friends tried to reassure Carpenter, saying that O'Brien was a crank and that it would all blow over, but they were aware that their problem was George Merrill whose behaviour (described in the police report) was well known. Some reports were coming in of O'Brien's views gaining some local support.
This was an exceptionally stressful period for Carpenter. He tried to keep a brave face in public and dampen down the conflict with diplomatic outreach to local newspapers and dignitaries. But privately he had the tension between his many friends who were openly critical of Merrill's behaviour, and his own love and loyalty towards his partner.
Luck, however, was on Carpenter's side. In September 1909, just as O'Brien seemed to be gaining ground, he overreached himself and accused the local vicar, Revd. Bradshaw, of siding with Carpenter. Bradshaw wrote to Carpenter saying that the whole parish was up in arms because O'Brien was calling 'Holmsfield the "Sodom of Derbyshire".' O'Brien's populist campaign had misfired, and he had united the village in support of Carpenter against O'Brien.
Rowbotham says that O'Brien's campaign spluttered on, but eventually his wife left him out of exasperation at his conduct. In 1913 he issued further pamphlets castigating the women in his family, along with "the Socialist Prophet of Sodom and Gomorrah, Edward Carpenter". He was later charged with attacking a woman who had sheltered his mother and wife.
Carpenter's relations with certain villagers had been strained by this episode, but he and Merrill were able to recover lost ground with a determined programme of community relations, such as setting up a youth club, and organising plays and drama.
The above two sections have been structured as factual narratives of events, based on the documents available. But the following section is more of a personal reflection on what I think these documents can tell us about homosexual history.
When doing any investigation into homosexuality, we always have a huge amount of documentary evidence left to us by the elite in any society. The elites are often male and patriarchal and the surviving documents will reflect such values.
We may have some documentary evidence from a homosexual subculture, but such evidence may be "coded" by the semi-hidden assumptions and language of that subculture, and will need careful interpretation. Such interpretation is often best done by people who are themselves homosexual.
It is exceptionally rare, however, to get good evidence of homosexual behaviour from working-class cultures in history. Written documentation may not have been created, or be lost through the exigiences of poverty. Often the only records we have are when working class people interact with the elite, either through the criminal courts or through romantic attachment (whether motivated by love or commerce). But even these records will be in the voice of the elite person, and the working class person's voice will be silent (as in Carpenter's biography of Merrill).
In my own work I label these "top-culture" (the elite), "sub-cultures" (sexual minorities) and "unrecorded cultures" (working class - amongst many other cultures). The key thing to recognise is lack of evidence of something happening is not evidence that the thing never happened. Working-class homosexual life was there, but we know very little about it.
This police investigation evidences the attitudes of the patriarchal elite in Whitehall, something we know a lot about already. But the story of George Merrill gives us a rare and valuable chance to explore one late Victorian working-class homosexual life, and through him a window into working class rural homosexual culture. There are three relevant documents about George on this website.
The Police Report and the Minute Notes reflect common attitudes to homosexuality at the time.
Amongst the Whitehall elite, more liberal attitudes might agree that the study of homosexuality may be necessary. But homosexuality was a deeply regretable pathology and problem, to be dealt with by medical people and the criminal law. It may be necessary for such people to have access to books about homosexuality, but such knowledge should be carefully controlled and not allowed to be spread to the wider population. One review of a German publication said that it should not have been translated into English, so that only the right sort of person could read it, who would naturally speak German. Even better, it should only be available in Latin.
Rowbotham reports that some medical journals were beginning to give sympathetic reviews to such publications, including The Intermediate Sex. But that was not universal. In one letter O'Brien cited the editor of the British Medical Journal as saying "I am glad to find that we may reckon on your support in our attempts to combat a serious social evil. We do not think the matter ought to be left as it is; we want to kill, not merely scotch, the snake." The BMJ review and O'Brien's letters show us how they went about that task.
What is more interesting is what Superintendent Andrew's statement can tell us about rural working class attitudes to homosexuality. What is striking is a total lack of the strong antipathy and moral judgement found amongst the elite.
Some recent scholarship suggests that whilst the Victorian elite may have been taught to see homosexuality as a moral problem, such an attitude was often lacking in working class life. In a culture before contraception, where a young man's access to women was very limited, it was common and accepted for young working-class men to enter into same-sex relationships, either for deep loving companionship, or for short-term sex, or both. Many of the men that Merrill cruised may have themselves had same-sex relationships in the past, or may still be active, alongside any heterosexual life.
Havelock Ellis described this in his 1897 book on Homosexuality. He cites a correspondent "Q" (who Rowbotham thinks is Carpenter himself) who stated:
Among the working masses of England and Scotland, "comradeship" is well marked, though not (as in Italy) very conscious of itself. Friends often kiss each other, though this habit seems to vary a great deal in different sections and coteries. Men commonly sleep together, whether comrades or not, and so easily get familiar. Occasionally, but not so very often, this relation delays for a time, or even indefinitely, actual marriage, and in some instances is highly passionate and romantic. There is a good deal of grossness, no doubt, here and there in this direction among the masses; but there are no male prostitutes (that I am aware of) whose regular clients are manual workers.
Merrill's experience in and around Millthorpe would be entirely congruent with such a thesis. His attempts at cruising may have been rejected, but no formal complaints were made. They were accepted as simply part of life, and part of what Merrill was. Just as another man might have a reputation for having short arms and deep pockets and being unwilling to stand his round in the pub, Merrill's sometimes unwanted homosexual offers were accepted as part of a live-and-let-live life. Of course we will never know how many men were glad to accept Merrill's advances. That is unrecorded history, but one must presume they existed.
It is worth paying attention to the introduction to O'Brien's "Socialism and Infamy pamphlet, because it gives us a helpful insight into contemporary views about Carpenter. O'Brien calls Carpenter a "Socialist Prophet", and described him as "a brilliant, distinguished, and influential prophet and leader in the Socialist party". This is an accurate description of how Carpenter was seen at this time. Useful analogies might be Zack Polanski of the UK Green Party, or Zohran Mamdami in New York, or Bernie Sanders of an older generation. All three are regarded as dangerous radicals by the establishment but revered by a younger generation for their pro-socialist, pro-communitarian and pro-environmental messages. All three have used social media creatively to spread their message.
Carpenter was an almost exact equivalent one hundred years earlier, using his books, articles and lecture tours to inspire a huge following, especially amongst the young middle and working classes. Two contemporary descriptions of Carpenter say:
"by the middle 90s Carpenters influence was incalculable. Especially among the young, who found in Carpenter a man possessing the strength to live what he taught."
and
"Carpenter was the Prophet of Socialism, in whose Towards Democracy the soul of the Labour Movement found expression, before as yet there was a Labour Movement."
It was Carpenter's huge influence, especially amongst the young, which made his promotion of homosexuality appear to be so dangerous to the British establishment. (See my Edward Carpenter Video Biography hosted on my switchingview Website/YouTube channel).
The situation with Merrill is more complex and nuanced, and I admit myself to having conflicting interpretations.
It is clear that many upper-class homosexual men chose to escape from their own world into other cultures, where they can find men with a much less constrained attitude to homosexuality, in both its physical or emotional expressions. T.E. Shaw (Lawrence of Arabia) escaped into firstly Arabia and then life as an other-rank in the Armed Forces. Wilfred Thesiger also explored many parts Arab culture, as did Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams decades later. Could it be that Carpenter made his escape North into working-class culture partly for the same reason?
George Merrill's lack of constraint may have been exactly what Carpenter was searching for. An attitude symbolised by the gamekeeper Scudder in E.M. Forster's "Maurice", or the gamekeeper Mellors in D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover", both novels said to have been inspired (directly or indirectly) by George Merrill himself.
There can be a tendency to describe Carpenter's life with Merrill as a rural idyll, out of a desire to present them as an early and successful openly gay couple. And they may have been exactly that. But their life was complex, and we need to acknowledge such complexity.
It is interesting to look at Merrill's past life as described in his biography, and at descriptions of how Merrill and Carpenter first met on Dore and Totley Railway Station platform. Was this a love match? Or, bearing in mind Merrill's past history, Merrill's deliberate attempt to cruise Carpenter, as he had cruised other wealthy men before. Many of Carpenter's friends were deeply suspicious of Merrill and his motives and forecast disaster. But love is blind, and Carpenter clearly loved Merrill for whatever he offered, and the rest is history.
In the end I don't know what to think. Was this a love match? Or did Merrill cynically play Carpenter? Or perhaps both at the same time. If it was the second I don't blame Merrill for making the best of his life after a difficult start. And by doing so providing loving support to Carpenter for almost forty years.
But I do think we should be aware of these stories, so we have an accurate picture of how Merrill, Carpenter and other gay men lived in Victorian and Edwardian England, and not project back some idealised romantic bliss in order to meet our own needs.