Mark Anthony Bracegirdle

Lanka Sama Samaja Party

Youth Leagues Suriya-Mal Movement Bracegirdle Incident 1953 Hartal

Personalities Philip Gunawardena Pieter Keuneman Anil Moonesinghe N.M. Perera Edmund Samarakkody Tissa Abeysekara Colvin R de Silva Caroline Anthonypillai S.A. Wickremasinghe

European Radicals in Sri Lanka

Politics of Sri Lanka Political parties in Sri Lanka Elections in Sri Lanka

Trotskyism Fourth International

Communism Portal This box: view · Leighton Seymour Bracegirdle. For the fictional family of Hobbits see Bracegirdle. Mark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle (born in London on 10 September, 1912, died 22 June 1999), was an Anglo-Australian Marxist revolutionary, who played a key role in Sri Lanka's independence struggle. He was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka. The Bracegirdle Incident revolved around him. Early life Bracegirdle was born in Chelsea, to Ina Marjorie Lyster and James Seymour Bracegirdle, and was educated in Kennington. He emigrated to Australia with his mother, a suffragette who had been active in the Labour Party and a candidate in 1925 for the Holborn borough. He studied art at a Sydney art school and trained as a farmer in the outback. In about 1935 he joined the Australian Young Communist League (YCL). In Lanka In 1936 he sailed on the SS Bendigo for Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known). He began 'creeping' (i.e., learning the trade of tea-planting) on Relugas estate in Madulkelle near Matale. Bracegirdle was working among the Tamil plantation labourers ('coolies'), who were treated inhumanely, receiving very little health care, even less education and living in 'line rooms' which were worse than cattle sheds in England. Militancy among these workers was increasing. He was dismissed for fraternising with the workers and for taking their side in labour disputes. He joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). On 28 November 1936, at a meeting in Colombo, the president of the party, Dr Colvin R. de Silva, introduced him, saying: 'This is the first time a white comrade has ever attended a party meeting held at a street corner.' He made his first public speech in Sri Lanka, warning that the capitalists were trying to split the workers of Sri Lanka and put one against the other. He took an active part in organising a public meeting on Galle Face Green in Colombo on 10 January 1937 to celebrate Sir Herbert Dowbiggin's departure from the island. It was called by the LSSP to protest against the atrocities claimed to have been committed during Dowbiggin's long tenure as Inspector General of Police, particularly during the 1915 riots. In March, he was co-opted to serve on the executive committee. He was employed by K. Natesa Iyer, Member of the State Council for the Hatton constituency, to 'organise an Estate Labour Federation in Nawalapitiya or Hatton, with an idea that he may be a proper candidate to be the future Secretary of the Labour Federation.' (Lerski, Origins of Trotskyism in Ceylon [1]) The Bracegirdle Incident On 3 April 1937, at a meeting at Nawalapitiya attended by two thousand estate workers, at which Mrs Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya of the Indian Congress Socialist Party spoke, Dr N.M. Perera said: 'Comrades, I have an announcement to make. You know we have a white comrade (applause) .... He has generously consented to address you. I call upon Comrade Bracegirdle to address you.' Bracegirdle rose to speak amid tumultuous applause and shouts of Samy, Samy ('Lord, Lord' in Tamil). The authorities were on hand to note his speech: 'the most noteworthy feature of this meeting ... was the presence of Bracegirdle and his attack on the planters. He claimed unrivalled knowledge of the misdeeds of the planters and promised scandalous exposures. His delivery, facial appearance, his posture were all very threatening ... Every sentence was punctuated with cries of samy, samy from the labourers. Labourers were heard to remark that Mr Bracegirdle has correctly said that they should not allow planters to break labour laws and they must in future not take things lying down.'[2] The British planters were angry that their prestige was being harmed by a fellow white man. They prevailed upon the British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs to deport him. Bracegirdle was served with the order of deportation on 22 April and given 48 hours to leave on the SS Mooltan, on which a passage had been booked for him by the Government. The LSSP with Bracegirdle's assent decided that the order should be defied. Bracegirdle went into hiding and the Colonial Government began an unsuccessful man-hunt. The LSSP started a campaign to defend him. At that year's May Day rally at Price Park, placards declaring 'We want Bracegirdle – Deport Stubbs' were displayed, and a resolution was passed condemning Stubbs, demanding his removal and the withdrawal of the deportation order. On 5 May, in the State Council, NM Perera and Philip Gunawardena moved a vote of censure on the Governor for having ordered the deportation of Bracegirdle without the advice of the acting Home Minister. Even the Board of Ministers had started feeling the heat of public opinion and the vote was passed by 34 votes to 7. On the same day there was a 50,000-strong rally at Galle Face Green, which was presided over by Colvin R de Silva and addressed by Dr N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Leslie Goonewardena, A.E.Goonesinha, George E. de Silva, D.M. Rajapakse, Siripala Samarakkody, Vernon Gunasekera, Handy Perimbanayagam, Mrs Satyawagiswara Iyer and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. Bracegirdle made a dramatic appearance on the platform at this rally, but the police were powerless to arrest him. However, the police managed to arrest him a couple of days later at the Hulftsdorp residence of Vernon Gunasekera, the Secretary of the LSSP. However, the necessary legal preparations had been made. A writ of Habeas Corpus was served and the case was called before a bench of three Supreme Court judges presided over by Chief Justice Sir Sidney Abrahams. The brilliant H.V. Perera, the county's leading civil lawyer, volunteered his services free on behalf of Bracegirdle; he was made a Queens Counsel (QC) on the day that Bracegirdle appeared in court. On May 18th order was made that he could not be deported for exercising his right to free speech, and Bracegirdle was a free man. That summer he returned to England. He was seen off at the jetty by Dr N.M. Perera, Mrs Selina Perera, Vernon Gunasekera and Udakandawala Saranankara Thero. Later life In 1939, he married Mary Elizabeth Vinden. He became a conscientious objector during the Second World War. After the war he qualified as an engineer and settled in Gloucestershire. He joined the Aldermaston marches organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He became a committed member of the Labour Party. In the 1970s** he worked as a transport manager for the Flying Doctors service in Zambia. Towards the end of his working life, he lectured in engineering at North London Polytechnic. On retirement, he studied archaeology and worked voluntarily for the University of London. His interests included the history of Chinese scripts, the theories of Darwin, Leninism and Marxism, Roman glass, ornithology, farming, art and design. He left three daughters, a son and five grandchildren. ** I met Mark Bracegirdle in 1967, when I rented his house in Cornwall for three years. We became good friends, and it was at that time that he told me about his past work with the Flying Doctor service in Africa. We stayed in touch throughout the next 14 years, and I am certain that he did not return to Africa during that period. Therefore, his service in Africa had to have been in the 1960s, or earlier. • Jack Barker - Princeton, NJ References T. Perera, 'The Bracegirdle Saga: 60 Years After', What Next, No 5 1997 Wesley S Muthiah, 'Mark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle (1912-1999): A Traitor to the Imperialist Cause', What Next, No 14 1999 Vinod Moonesinghe, 'Sri Lanka: Mark Bracegirdle and the revolt against empire', Socialist Worker, No 2035 27 January 2007 Sri Lanka’s Independence and the Bracegirdle incident Persondata Name Bracegirdle, Mark Anthony Lyster Alternative names Short description Date of birth 1912 Place of birth Date of death 22 June 1999 Place of death Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат Electoral district of Little Para Bishunpur block Look at other dictionaries: Bracegirdle — is a surname that may refer to: *Anne Bracegirdle, 18th century English actress *Leighton Seymour Bracegirdle, Australian naval officer *Mark Anthony Bracegirdle, an Anglo Australian, political activist, famous in the Sri Lankan context… …   Wikipedia Lanka Sama Samaja Party — Lanka Equal Society Party Lanka Sama Samaja Party Sinhala name ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය Tamil name …   Wikipedia Sri Lankan independence movement — The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement to aimed at achieving independence for Sri Lanka from British imperial rule. It was ultimately successfully and Sri Lanka was granted independence on February 4, 1948.… …   Wikipedia Reginald Edward Stubbs — Infobox Governor name=Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs image size=100px width= height= caption= order=16th office=Governor of Hong Kong term start=30 September 1919 term end=1 November 1925 lieutenant= predecessor=Sir Francis Henry May successor=Sir… …   Wikipedia Sidney Abrahams — Sir Sidney Solomon Abrahams (February 11, 1885 ndash; May 14, 1957), nicknamed Solly , was a British Olympic athlete and Chief Justice of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He was the older brother of famed Olympian Harold Abrahams. Born in Birmingham, England …   Wikipedia List of socialists — The following is a list of self identified socialists, divided by geographical location. 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Some of the people listed below may only briefly have been in the LSSP.A large proportion… …   Wikipedia List of Sri Lankans — This is a partial list of notable individuals from the island of Sri Lanka Activists *Richard de Zoysa *Rajini Rajasingham Thiranagama *Kumar Ponnambalam Actors/actresses *Gamini Fonseka *Malini Fonseka *Henry Jayasena *Vijaya Kumaratunga… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”