Hubert
Bland,
the son of a Roman Catholic businessman,
was born in Woolwich, London, on 3rd January,
1855. As a youth Bland wanted to join the army but the death of his
father forced him to run the family business.
In 1877 Bland met Edith
Nesbit a young woman who shared his interest in politics. Bland
was a disciple of William Morris, and helped
to convert Edith to socialism. Edith became pregnant and the baby
was born two months after they were married on 22nd April, 1880.
In October 1883 Bland and his wife joined their Quaker
friend Edward Pease, to form a socialist
debating group in London. They were also
joined by Havelock Ellis and Frank
Podmore and in January 1884 they decided to call themselves the
Fabian Society. Bland chaired the first
meeting and was elected treasurer. He also helped Edith
Nesbit edit the society's journal, Today.
Soon afterwards other socialists in London began attending meetings.
This included Eleanor Marx, Annie
Besant, Clementina Black, George
Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb and Beatrice
Webb.
In 1885 Bland also joined the Social Democratic
Federation (SDF). However, he did not stay long as they found
the views of its leader, H. H. Hyndman,
too revolutionary. After his experience of the SDF, Hubert
Bland,
rejected extremism and advocated what became known as gradualism.
Bland was a freelance journalist until 1889 when he obtained the position
as a columnist for the radical newspaper, Manchester
Sunday Chronicle.
In the newspaper and in several pamphlets that he wrote for the Fabian
Society, Bland advocated a mixture of state socialism and imperialism.
In The
Outlook
(1889) Bland argued in favour of the nationalization of the means
of production.
In 1893 Hubert
Bland
joined the Independent Labour Party. However,
his support of the Boer
War
made him unpopular with members of both the ILP and the Fabian
Society. Bland argued that the livelihood of British working people
depended on the maintenance of the Empire. He wrote that if the British
army was defeated in South Africa it would mean "starvation in
every city of Great Britain." Unlike most socialists, Bland was
an opponent of women's rights.
In 1911 Bland began to go blind. Unable to
work, Bland was supported by his wife, Edith
Nesbit, who was now a very successful novelist. Hubert
Bland died of a heart attack on 14th April, 1914.
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