Robert Gammage, 'Recollections of a Chartist', in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle

Picture of Robert Gammage

Robert Gammage was born in Northampton around 1820. Aged twelve he started an informal apprenticeship with a local coachbuilder. He was a founding member of the Northampton branch of the Chartist "Working Men's Association", and began speaking at public meetings. He lost his job as a result and started travelling in February 1840, initially just to find work but increasingly as a Chartist lecturer. In 1852, he was elected onto the Chartist National Executive but was ousted in 1854 following arguments with O'Connor and Ernest Jones. He is best known for his History of the Chartist Movement, published in 1854. He moved to Newcastle and qualified as a doctor. Retiring in 1887, he moved back to Northampton and died in 1888 after falling from a tram. Gammage's Recollections were published as a letter and sixteen articles in the newspaper edited by William Adams. They are not in chronoogical order, and focus on his initial travels in 1840-43 and on speaking tours in 1852-3. Two points of interest are the mentions of four of our other authors, and the number of friends and relatives, scattered across southern England, Gammage could call on even on his first trip away from home.

The following sections are available:
Gammage's first letter to the Chronicle
Election to the Chartist National Convention in 1852
Touring South Wales
Standing for Parliament in Cheltenham, 1852
Touring the Welsh border in 1852 and 1853
How and Why I Became a Chartist; Schooldays
Becoming a Chartist speaker, and first leaving Northampton in 1840
On tramp in 1840, from London to the south coast
Eight months in Sherborne
Working and Campaigning in Chelmsford in 1841-2
Travelling in the north in 1842
Liverpool and London in 1842
Chelmsford, Oxford and Nottinghamshire
To Scotland in 1843
Touring central Scotland
Ayrshire and Renfrewshire
Hampshire, Lancashire, and final reflections