The Skeleton Army and the Bonfire Boys, Worthing, 1884

The picture that emerged from my subsequent researches' was as unexpected as it was fascinating. Unexpected, first, becasuse the cause for the violent reaction was the arrival of the Salvation Army in Worthing in the Autumn of 1883; and secondly, because the focal point for the opposition to their presence came from the local Bonfire Club, whose dedication to the traditions of the November 5 celebrations far surpassed even the most fervent manifestations likely to be found today. Since many other towns of southern England experienced similar disurbances, with Sussex being especially prominent,2 it became clear that a major episode in folk history has been neglected.3 I hope in this short study to at least try and remedy this neglect. As most of my research has been confined to events in Worthing, I shall here be concentrating upon that town; it must be stressed, however, that 'Skeleton Armies' appeared elsewhere too, and that the turbulent history of Guy Fawkes Night and its Bonfire Clubs was of special significance to the working classes throughout Sussex. What happened in Worthing was but one part of a much larger story. Before examining the specifically folkloric aspects of the Worthing disturbances, I think it essential to give a short introductory historical narrative. Without an understanding of the historical context, these events could seem little more than religious bigotry and mindless violence. William Booth founded the Salvation Army in 1878. Its aim was to rekindle the popular evangelism of early Methodism, but in the process it launched a vigorous propaganda campaign against drink, tobacco, gambling, boxing, music halls, and other 'social evils'-which were much enjoyed pleasures for the working classes. The military aspect of Booth's organization undoubtedly owed much to the jingoistic climate of the time; late Vicorian psychology was closely wedded.to the ideals of military glory and its accompanying pomp. Yet Booth was no friend of the Victorian Establishment; his Army was to be an army of the poor and luckless, the same 'dangerous classes' that respectable opinion so feared. Many Conservatives were worried by an attempt to organize the working classes into a movement, let alone an 'Army.' Social change was regarded as dangerously subversive (the first edition of the Conservative Worthing Gazette promised its readers that it would '...discourage the morbid craving for change'); yet throughout the 1880s political and social changes were increasingly urged, whether by the newly formed Social Democratic Federation, the Irish Land League, or the Liberals with their demands that male franchise be extended to such an extent that, for the first time, the potential for real power lay with the working classes

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