Charles Bradlaugh

Charles  Bradlaugh was born in 1833 and died in 1891.He was an English political activist and an atheist.

He was President of the London Secular Society from 1858 and In 1866 co-founded the National Secular Society in which Annie Besant  became his close associate. He was the Liberal MP for Northampton from 1888 to 1891.

His attempt to affirm as an atheist ultimately led to his temporary imprisonment, and fines for voting illegally in the Commons. He was finally allowed to take an oath in 1866. Eventually a Parliamentary Bill which he proposed became law in 1888, allowing members of both Houses of Parliament to affirm when being sworn in.

At one time he lived at 20 Circus Road,  a house now demolished and replaced by the St Johns Wood Library.