George Bedborough Higgs[note 1] (10 January 1868 – 7 August 1940) was an English bookseller, journalist and writer who advocated for a number of causes, including sex reform, freethought, secularism, eugenics, animal rights, vegetarianism, and free love. He was the secretary of the Legitimation League and editor of the League's publication The Adult: A Journal for the Advancement of freedom in Sexual Relationships. Bedborough was convicted for obscenity in 1898, after being caught selling a book on homosexuality; the case of Regina v. Bedborough, has also been referred to as the Bedborough trial or Bedborough case.[2]
George Bedborough Higgs was born in St Giles, London, on 10 January 1868.[3] His father was a retired Church of England preacher and his mother was a poet.[4] He was educated at Dulwich College and began work at the age of 16, founding the Workhouse Aid Society with W. T. Stead.[4] Bedborough later attended university.[5]
In 1887, Bedborough was present at Bloody Sunday, in Trafalgar Square.[4] He later wrote for a number of publications including the Sunday Chronicle, Shafts (a feminist magazine), University Magazine, the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle and South London Mail.[4][6] Bedborough was a close friend and collaborator with Henry S. Salt, Bertram Dobell and Ernest Bell.[7]
From 1891 to 1892, Bedborough was a member of the National Society of Lanternists. He also occasionally worked as a lantern operator and gave lectures.[3]
In 1892, her married Louie Fisher.[8] His marriage was for the sake of his family and he had an open relationship with his wife.[9]
Bedborough was a member of the Legitimation League and edited its journal The Adult between 1897 and 1898;[10] the League advocated for the legitimation of illegitimate children and free love.[11] His wife was the treasurer of the League.[12]
On 31 May 1898, Bedborough was arrested, along with the sex-radical feministLillian Harman and charged with obscenity for attempting to "corrupt the morals of Her Majesty's Subjects".[10][13] He was indicated on 11 counts, including selling a copy of Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2, a book on homosexuality, by Havelock Ellis, to an undercover agent, as well as selling other pamphlets considered to be indecent, including one by Oswald Dawson, the founder of the Legitimation League.[10][13] He was also indicated for his articles published in The Adult.[10] Bedborough had been under surveillance because of the suspected anarchist connections of the League;[14] Bedborough, himself, was not an anarchist.[15]
A Free Speech Defence Committee was formed to attempt to fight the case; members included Henry Seymour, Frank Harris, Edward Carpenter, George Bernard Shaw, G. W. Foote, Mona Caird and Grant Allen.[10][16] Just before being prosecuted, Bedborough collaborated with the police and pled guilty on three counts. This led the committee to denounce him and publish the details of the case.[10] On 31 October 1898, Bedborough was fined £100 (equivalent to £14,070 in 2023), for selling Ellis' book.[17] He agreed to no longer be associated with the League or The Adult,[16] writing in the December issue "I adhere to my resolution not to excuse myself. I am a coward […] I thank Henry Seymour, Mr. Foote, and others with all my heart and soul for their work, which I have requited illy indeed".[18]
Bedborough became a vegetarian in 1902, after Moses Harman visited his home and suggested they visit meat-packing houses to see if Bedborough would remain a meat-eater.[19] In 1906, Bedborough became the editor of The Children's Realm, a children's magazine published by the Vegetarian Federal Union and London Vegetarian Society, remaining as editor for the majority of its existence;[20] the magazine ceased publication in 1914.[21]
Bedborough was a contributor to the American Journal of Eugenics, published between 1907 and 1910.[13] He was also an active member of the discussion circles of the feminist journal The Freewoman, which was published between 1911 and 1912.[6]
Bedborough published three books of aphorisms, Narcotics and a Few Stimulants, Vacant Chaff Well Meant for Grain and Subtilty to the Simple and one book of Epigrams, Vulgar Fractions.[22] In 1914, Bedborough published Stories from the Children's Realm, a children's story book with animal rights, anti-vivisection and vegetarian themes; it contained several illustrations by L. A. Hayter, former illustrator and contributor to The Children's Realm.[23] Bedborough published The Atheist in 1919; a poem which advocated for atheism and was critical of the killing of animals for human consumption; it was dedicated to Anatole France.[24]
During the 1920s and 30s, Bedborough reconnected with the secular movement, writing for The Freethinker, he published an attack on the Ku Klux Klan in 1936 and a reflection on Havelock Ellis after his death in 1939.[15] He also contributed to the Birth Control Review.[25] In 1934, he published Arms and the Clergy, a compilation of clerical declarations made during the First World War.[26] His last work Prayer: An Indictment, published in 1938, was a secular criticism of prayer.[27]
Bedborough died in Cambridge, on 7 August 1940.[3]
^Bedborough's father, a clergyman, is said to have detested his son's advocacy of free love; Arthur Calder-Marshall speculated that Bedborough abandoned his surname to avoid embarrassing his father.[1]
Coulson, Frederick Raymond; Singer, George Astor (1898). "Judicial Scandals and Errors". Darwin on Trial at the Old Bailey. London: University Press. p. 46.
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