Early Years
Albert Victor Grayson was born in Liverpool and became an apprentice engineer. He joined the Independent Labour Party and toured the country giving lectures, becoming a well-known orator despite having a stammer. In 1907 he stood as an Independent Labour candidate in the Colne Valley by-election, having been nominated by the local branch of the Independent Labour Party. He won a sensational, albeit narrow, victory. Grayson was paid an allowance by the ILP but refused to sign the Labour Party constitution.
Grayson rarely attended the House of Commons and began to develop a drinking problem. After losing his seat in the January 1910 general election, and failing even to retain his deposit when standing for Kennington, he continued his lecture tours but suffered a mental breakdown in 1913.
Writing of Grayson in an article on British radical politics in Pravda, V.I. Lenin noted that Grayson was "a very fiery socialist, but one not strong in principles and given to phrase-mongering."
Grayson alienated many of his left-wing colleagues by backing Britain's entry into World War I and turning his oratorical skills to recruiting soldiers. He served briefly in the New Zealand Army and was wounded. After the war, Grayson attempted to resurrect his political career.
In 1918 Sir Basil Thomson, head of the Special Branch, asked a man called Maundy Gregory to spy on Victor Grayson. Grayson held left-wing views and was suspected of working as an agent for the new communist government in Russia. It was also feared he might be working for the Irish Republican Army.
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