Labour Party
Which party was Cecil Malone a member of from 1922 to 1923?
Cecil Malone Cecil John LEstrange Malone ( 7 September 1890 – 25 February 1965 ) was a British politician and pioneer naval aviator who served as the United Kingdoms first Communist member of parliament . Early years and military service . Malone was born in Dalton Holme , a parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire , on 7 September 1890 . He was the son of the Reverend Savile LEstrange Malone and Frances Mary Faljomb . He was related to the sisters Constance Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth . Malone was educated at Cordwalles School in Maidenhead before joining the Royal Navy in 1905 and went through officer training at Royal Naval College , Dartmouth . On 15 March 1910 , he was confirmed as a sub-lieutenant having previously been acting in that rank . In 1911 , he was part of the second course approved by the Admiralty to attend Naval Flying School , Eastchurch . He was promoted to lieutenant from sub-lieutenant on 15 December 1911 . Malone earned his Royal Aero Club certificate ( No . 195 ) on 12 March 1912 . In the Army Manoeuvres of 1912 , Malone flew a twin-engined triple-screwed Short biplane . He is also noted for flying off the forecastle of steaming . During World War I , Malone commanded Royal Naval Air Service ( RNAS ) planes in the Cuxhaven Raid on 25 December 1914 . From August 1914 to March 1915 , he captained , a cross-channel steamer converted to a seaplane carrier . From March 1915 to April 1916 , he captained , another steamer converted to a seaplane carrier . Under Malones command , seaplanes from Ben-my-Chree were the first on record to carry torpedoes and they torpedoed three enemy vessels in 1916 . Malone then took over command of the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron , for which he was awarded the Fourth Class of the Order of the Nile . Malone was appointed to the Plans Division of the Admiralty in 1918 before becoming the First British Air Attache at the Embassy of the United Kingdom , Paris . In this capacity , he was the Air Representative of the Supreme War Council in Versailles in 1918 . He was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) for his war efforts . Early political career . Malone was elected as the Coalition Liberal Member of Parliament ( MP ) for East Leyton at the 1918 general election . He was a member of the anti-communist Reconstruction Society and wrote a number of articles strongly criticising left-wing activists . As Adams and Wilson wrote , his early career contained no hint of his subsequent espousal of the communist cause . On 13 September 1919 , with a passport endorsed by the British Foreign Office in hand , Cecil Malone embarked on the S.S . Arcturus for Helsinki . There Malone , who intended to visit Soviet Russia despite the blockade of the country , unexpectedly met up with another individual planning on crossing over to Petrograd . After travelling by sea and land to the border , the pair managed to cross the frontier through deserted forests and marshland by foot , arriving at the Soviet border on Sunday , 28 September . The two arrived in Petrograd by train at 6 pm the following day . Malone met and spoke with key leaders of the trade union movement in Petrograd before proceeding by train to Moscow . In Moscow , Malone met with Maxim Litvinov , then a top official in the Peoples Commissariat of Foreign Affairs , with whom he had a long discussion . He later met for an hour with foreign minister Georgii Chicherin . Malones new friends arranged for him to accompany Red Army leader Leon Trotsky on an inspection of troops at Tula aboard Trotskys special train . Accompanying Malone on the trip were the head of the Supreme Council of National Economy ( VSNKh ) , Alexei Rykov ; chief of food supply for the Russian Republic , Alexander Tsiurupa ; and Peoples Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky . During his visit , detailed in his memoir , Malone toured factories and theatres , power stations and government offices . He found the mission of the Bolshevik government in attempting economic reconstruction to be compelling and emerged from his trip a committed communist . The history of Allied negotiations and transactions with Russia appears to have been a chain of catastrophes and mistakes he wrote : ... [ I ] t seems there was a culpable lack of foresight in visualizing the forces behind the Revolution . Every effort was made by Lenin and Trotsky to bring about peace with the Allies . They were prepared to refuse to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany , and instead to continue the fight on the side of the Allies , but the Allies refused to recognize them .. . Various interventional operations , mostly carried out on the plea of protecting Russia against the invasion from Germany , were inaugurated , but really , as we now see , they were carried out in the interests of the capitalist class in Russia . It seems incredible that such slender excuses for intervention should have been allowed to hold good for so long.. . [ N ] ow we find ourselves supporting partisan leaders in Russia by the supply of arms and munitions at the expense of the British taxpayer , and in addition we find our Government carrying on an inhuman and illegal blockade against the Russian people , the result of which during the coming winter months will indeed be terrible . Upon his return to England , Malone became active in the Hands Off Russia campaign , and in November 1919 he officially joined the proto-Communist British Socialist Party ( BSP ) . Malone was soon being elected to the partys leadership through the patronage of Theodore Rothstein . In the summer of 1920 , the BSP became the main constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain ( CPGB ) , and as a result , Malone became the first CPGB MP . He attended the London Communist Unity Convention held 31 July and 1 August 1921 , at which he was elected to the new partys governing Central Committee . Malones sudden conversion to revolutionary politics brought more questions than answers , and its genuineness was questioned . John Maclean claimed that Malone was a counter-revolutionary sent to disrupt the workers movement , and he refused to speak alongside Malone . Official CPGB historian James Klugmann saw Malone as a leading figure in the partys first year of existence : In the first months of the Partys existence Col . Malone was very active not only in Parliament , but addressing mass meetings and rallies all over the country . Whatever his theoretical weaknesses , he was a man of passion , moved by the revolutionary tremors that were shaking the world , full of wrath and indignation against the powers that be , and after a fiery speech in the Albert Hall on November 7 , 1920 , he was charged with sedition under Regulation 42 of the Defense of the Realm Act .. . [ h ] e was sentenced to six months in the Second Division . The line which landed Malone in jail related to his argument that during a revolutionary crisis , excesses might occur resulting in the killing of some prominent members of the bourgeoisie . What are a few Churchills or a few Curzons on lampposts compared to the massacre of thousands of human beings? , Malone asked his audience . Despite Malones prosecution , the Communist Party did not disavow Malones rhetorical flourish , going so far as to publish an official party pamphlet , entitled What are a Few Churchills ? in January 1921 . He was stripped of his OBE on 24 June 1921 . Malone came to the attention of Special Branch , whose role it was to combat Bolshevik subversion . He was frequently mentioned in reports to the cabinet on Revolutionary Organisations in the United Kingdom . Malone worked to promote the affiliation of the CPGB to the Labour Party , which was under consideration as a tactical matter , urged by Lenin . Malone was particularly keen and stated There are still a few differences between the Communist Party and the Labour Party . I am glad to realise , however , that this will soon be settled by affiliation . Later political and military career . Malone dissociated himself from the Communist Party of Great Britain and joined the Independent Labour Party , which was affiliated to the Labour Party , in 1922 . He was the Labour candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne in the 1924 general election , but was unsuccessful . However , following the death of Arthur Holland in 1927 , Malone was elected as MP for Northampton in the ensuing 1928 by-election . He was re-elected at the 1929 general election , and served in Ramsay MacDonalds government as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Pensions , Frederick Roberts , in 1931 . He was not re-elected in the 1931 general election . Malone returned to military service in the Second World War . In 1942 he was the staff officer to the chief warden of the City of Westminster Civil Defence . From 1943 to 1945 he served in the Admiralty Small Vessels Pool . Following the end of the war in 1945 , he became the Vice President of the Royal Television Society , the founder and chairman of the Radio Association , and a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society . By the time of his death his publications included The Russian Republic , New China , and Manchukuo : Jewel of Asia . Later life . Malone married Leah Kay in 1921 . After her death , he remarried in 1956 . He died on 25 February 1965 , aged 74 . External links . - Documents relating to Cecil Malone held at the National Archives of the United Kingdom