James Bronterre O’Brien at Abney Park Cemetery

The sort-of-annual Bronterre O’Brien Commemoration is back after a bit of a break. It’s taking place at Abney Park Cemetery, where Bronterre is buried, on Sunday 17 September 2023, and the address this year is being delivered by Dianne Abbott, the local MP.

Details of the event and how to attend are here.

I am hoping to make a trip to Abney Park some time this autumn to track down a number of Chartists buried there, and in the mean time have added a piece about this great Irish radical’s life to the main Chartist Ancestors website.

Biography of James Bronterre O’Brien.

O’Brien was at the famous meeting at the Crown and Anchor in London in February 1837 at which the London Working Men’s Association’s programme was adopted. This would in due course become the People’s Charter. His enthusiastic response to what he saw and heard is shown in the image below.