H. T. Muggeridge

Henry Thomas Muggeridge (26 June 1864 – 25 March 1942) was a British politician. He was the father of the author and journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and also Eric Muggeridge who is one of the founders of Plan International. Life Muggeridge was born the son of undertaker Henry Ambrose Muggeridge in Penge, which was then a small village but is now incorporated into the city of London, on 26 June 1864. When the family was abandoned by his father, Muggeridge left school and began work as an office boy in the City of London. The little money he kept for himself was spent on books, and it was his avid lunchtime reading that led to a keen interest in politics. His second job was again as an office boy for a firm of shirtmakers, where he stayed until he retired. He eventually became Company Secretary, but had turned down a directorship, as he felt it would be at odds with his political principles. In 1893, Muggeridge married Annie Booler, the daughter of a Sheffield factory foreman, and they had five sons, Malcolm being the middle child. Malcolm Muggeridge's biographer Richard Ingrams described H.T. as "a small bearded man with a large frame, a twinkling eye, and a rather bulbous nose which he passed on to his son." Malcolm's first name, Thomas, was chosen by H.T. in honor of his hero Thomas Carlyle. One of Malcolm's quoted memories of his father is of his visits to the Surrey Street Market, where he would set up his platform and expound his views on the need for socialism: "Now ladies and gentlemen. It's His Majesty's Government, His Majesty's Navy, His Majesty's Stationery Office, His Majesty's this and His Majesty's that. But it's the National Debt. Why isn't that His Majesty's? We'll gladly let His Majesty have that, won't we?"