July 12 green plaque unveiling - Remarks by Viscount Adrian Buckmaster

My ancestor John Charles Buckmaster was a most remarkable man. Two weeks ago I attended the unveiling of a Battersea Society Plaque at Clapham Junction Station which recognises his extraordinary career not only for his role in saving Wandsworth Common but also as an Orator, and Educator.

Brought up effectively as an orphan in Buckinghamshire he worked as a farm labourer, at what is now primary school age, before becoming an apprentice carpenter. He was very active in the anti-corn law league and spoke so successfully that he became a paid speaker for the National campaign. A wealthy patron sponsored his further education at the first ever teacher training college near here and he went on to prominent roles in the education of science particularly for artisans and the less well off. He also wrote many text books on various science subjects. 

He combined a gift for public speaking with the ability to talk to anyone. In his anonymous autobiography he refers to  meeting Sir Robert Peel at his home to discuss education, showing Charles Dickens around a prison and to his work with Cobden and Bright on the anti corn law movement. He was also asked to give lectures on cookery at the International Exhibition, one of which was attended by Queen Victoria.   

He became a prominent member of the Wandsworth community. From his house, which is now somewhere under platform 9 of Clapham Junction, he enjoyed listening to the sounds of the cuckoo and other birds on the Common, which in his lifetime extended as far as the station, but is now long since gone. The final chapter of his autobiography tells of the day he was approached by two gravel diggers who had planted potatoes on common land but they had been ripped up by someone who said he had bought 6 acres of the Common.  JCB was always concerned with the lot of the less well off and saw life from their standpoint. Also he could see that the Common was under serious threat from encroachment so he launched a campaign to save it, using all his experience, oratory and campaigning skills in the battle.

He started writing letters to newspapers and began gathering local support and met with much success. Public meetings, both indoor and open air, were held and the support was enlisted of neighbouring parishes. A very successful fund raising enabled lawyers to be instructed. The press became very supportive and assisted the cause.

But the enclosures of the common land carried on, which probably helped fuel support and the campaign threatened to become violent with suggestions that the enclosing fences should be pulled down and the houses destroyed. There was a danger that mass gatherings in the thousands would get riotous and on one occasion 100 police were on standby in the bushes. At some gatherings JCB had to use all his public speaking skills and powers of persuasion to ensure things did not get out of hand and to get the crowds to disperse peacefully.

A court action was organised but the campaign’s star witness had been bought off and changed his evidence once in the witness box and the case collapsed. Fortunately the judge saw the merits of the case and worked behind the scenes to do a deal with Earl Spencer and a “friendly” act of parliament was agreed. But the game wasn’t over as the Board of Works, the forerunner of the council, used ratepayers money to fight the Act but they had public opinion against them and as we all know the Act was passed in July 1871.

From all that I have read and learned I am convinced that but for JCB’s leadership and his management of the campaign we would not be standing here on this lovely common today. Instead it would probably have been just another street.

In his book he concludes by saying  “If when the two gravel diggers came to complain about their potatoes I could have foreseen what was before me, I would never have written a letter to the newspapers.”  But we know he does not mean it as in all his remarkable life he leaves this to the end and he tells the story with such pride! He would have been delighted to see the legacy of his work in the form of the common as it is today and proud to be remembered in this way. He was a great man and we are very proud to have him as an ancestor.