1913: The Oxted Toilet Bombing Done By a Labour Party Chairman Who Taught JFK

Exploring a 113-year-old case - where a future Chairman of the Labour Party, and mentor to both JFK & Pierre Trudeau, blew up the men’s toilets at Oxted Station in Surrey, in support of the Suffragette movement. On 4th April 1913, Edwin Mighell arrived for his shift. He found the remnants of a rush basket containing a petrol can, an alarm clock, and what appeared to have been gunpowder.

 

History documentary exploring a 113-year-old case – where a future Chairman of the Labour Party, and mentor to both JFK & Pierre Trudeau, blew up the men’s toilets at Oxted Station in Surrey, in support of the Suffragette movement. On 4th April 1913, Edwin Mighell arrived for his shift. He found the remnants of a rush basket containing a petrol can, an alarm clock, and what appeared to have been gunpowder. The perpetrator had vanished. The case went cold. Join us for a story no-one put together for thirty-seven years — until Harold’s wife, Frida Laski, finally told it.

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In this episode:

  • What railway porter Edwin Mighell found that morning
  • The evidence trail that led to Miss Frida Kerry
  • The suffragette bombing campaign of 1913
  • Who Harold Laski became — and how far he went: JFK & Pierre Trudeau
  • Why Frida kept silent for thirty-seven years
  • The confession that came only after Harold’s death
  • The fate of the man who found the bomb

 

Secret Bonus Facts For Fans Who Get Lost In The Description:

  • Despite his militant youth, Laski actually tried to enlist for military service when World War I broke out in 1914. He was rejected on medical grounds (failing his physical eligibility tests), which ultimately led him to pursue his academic career in North America instead.
  • In 1945, Laski sued the Newark Advertiser for libel after it reported he had advocated “revolution by violence.” He famously lost the case when the opposing counsel, Sir Patrick Hastings, used Laski’s own academic writings—which frequently discussed the necessity of revolution—to convince the jury that the newspaper’s report was “fair and accurate”. Given his activities in Oxted, and his writings, truly spectacular hypocrisy (and, frankly, perjury) from Laski.
  • While teaching at Harvard, the radical Laski formed a deep, lifelong friendship with the conservative Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. They exchanged weekly letters for nearly 20 years, discussing everything from legal philosophy to gossip, which were later published as the Holmes-Laski Letters.

 

You’ve scrolled too far. There is nothing down here. But… since you’re here… Harold Laski was the inspiration for Ayn Rand villain in the Fountainhead! Laski’s fiery lecturing style and physical appearance reportedly served as the inspiration for the character Ellsworth Toohey — the manipulative socialist antagonist — in The Fountainhead. Rand even allegedly updated the character’s look after attending one of Laski’s lectures.