Wall Alfred

Alfred Wall

Alfred M Wall was probably the delegate from the Clapham branch of the British Socialist Party (BSP) to the Communist Unity Convention in 1920 and, as such, a founder member of the Communist Party.

 

At the October 1924 general election, the Communist Party stood eight candidates, including three in London. Joe Vaughan stood in Battersea North, Shapurji Saklatvala in Bethnal Green, and Alfred Wall in Streatham, in South West London (see separate entries). Like the others, Wall had the overwhelming support of the local Labour Party in the election and he secured 3,204 votes.

It is highly possible that this could be the same A M Wall who Noreen Branson refers to as the Secretary of the London Society of Compositors and Secretary of London Trades Council.

 

It is likely that Wall was part of the drift of some early members of the Communist Party outwards into the Labour Party as barriers were increasingly raised against Party members.

 

If so, and it would likely have been he who sat on a war-time government committee in the early days of the Second World War, which in 1941 discussed what action the government should take against the Communist Party. This committee included the head of MI5, senior members of MI6 and Sir Isaac Foot, a former national government minister. Alfred Wall was the `token Labour man’.

 

The committee recommended banning the Communist Party, being fearful of its call for a "people's government". However growing militancy made the Home Secretary in the coalition government, Labour’s Herbert Morrison, doubtful about this course of action and he restricted his action to banning the Daily Workers alone, leaving the Communist Party free to act.

Michael Walker