James Colton

James Colton (12 May 1860 – 5 August 1936) was a Scottish anarchist, trade unionist and coal miner, who spent most of his life in Wales. He was known for arranging a marriage of convenience with the anarchist activist and writer Emma Goldman in 1925, so that she could obtain British citizenship.

Biography


Colton was born in Govan, Scotland, on 12 May 1860, the son of Arthur Colton, a stonemason. As a child, he moved to Penarth in Wales. He first worked as a baker in Upper Boat, then later moved to Glanamman in the Amman Valley, where he became a miner at the Gelliceidrim Colliery. Colton was self-educated and this led to him identifying with libertarian thought. He first met Emma Goldman when she was giving a speaking tour in Edinburgh in 1895.

Shortly after the death of Colton's first wife and knowing that Goldman needed British citizenship, after she had been deported from the United States in 1919, he proposed a marriage of convenience. They married on 27 June 1925, Goldman's 58th birthday, when he was aged 65. The couple were not friends and did not intend to live together. Despite this, they occasionally maintained contact via letters. The marriage was reported in The New York Times the following year.

After the death of Goldman's lifelong lover and friend Alexander Berkman, Colton, who was sick himself, wrote Goldman a letter expressing his sympathies.

Colton died of cancer on 5 August 1936. he was buried in the Tabernacle cemetery at Glanamman. Goldman's last letter to Colton did not reach him before his death.