Joseph Clayton (1868–1943) was an English freelance journalist and biographer. A writer of numerous books, he covered areas of trade union and socialist history, but also religious figures and history.
Life
Joseph Clayton was born in London 28 April 1868 and attended the North London Collegiate School.
He was a Christian socialist as an undergraduate at Worcester College, Oxford, where he was a classmate of Richard Runciman Terry. He became an organiser of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and supported socialist causes. In 1896 he was an ILP member in Leeds.
He edited The New Age in 1907, successor to Arthur Compton-Rickett, before it was sold to a group backing A. R. Orage and Holbrook Jackson; Clayton knew Orage from the ILP. He was a convert to Roman Catholicism in 1910, and was an organist at Westminster Cathedral. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Clayton was a contributor to the National Review, The Athenaeum, The Universe, The Bookman, and the Catholic Encyclopedia. He also wrote in support of women's suffrage.
He died at Chipping Campden in November 1943.
