As we have learned, John got very animated around election time, and despite his anxiety about his impending move to America he outshone himself at the Brighton election of July 1860. He had no sincere intention of standing as a candidate, but having personal beefs with those who were standing, he engineered a parody campaign of his own.
According to the Brighton Gazette, at a riotous meeting at the Town Hall a week before the election ‘a placard was held up, on which was printed “John Harmer, Conservative for Brighton”, which created deafening cheers, and the eyes of the crowd involuntarily turned to the door-way, expecting every moment to see that eccentric character enter the room; but he did not put in an appearance.’ John’s cult of personality seems to have attracted a lot of followers, who shared his anarchic, anti-establishment sense of humour. On election day itself, When the Mayor asked if there were any other nominated candidates to come forwards, loud cries of “Where is John Harmer?” and “Harmer! Harmer!” rang out.
All the local newspapers, referring to John’s fans as ‘roughs’, reported sarcastically upon ‘the unceasing attempts of a number of non-electors, who seemed enthusiastic in the cause of the well-known John Harmer. These ‘gentry’ […] kept parading the town “supporting” a number of empty flys and cheering vociferously at every yard of their peregrinations’. At the hustings, ‘a number of rabble, supporters and admirers of the notorious John Harmer, made their way into the crowd and for some time stopped the proceedings. Two of them bore a figure, dressed as a woman and wearing a hideous mask; others had boughs of trees, others bills calling upon the electors to vote for Harmer, flags striped with various colours, and so on. When they had performed various antics and had pretty much tired themselves by crushing among the crowd, they became somewhat quiet and the business then proceeded.’
During the polling itself John drove around the town, fantastically dressed and attended by his “bodyguard”. According to the Brighton Guardian ‘By way of exciting the mob, John Harmer and his motley group had a procession in the streets, Harmer himself being attired in a most grotesque manner, and riding through the streets on a timber carriage, drawn by two heavy cart horses, the mob shouting “Harmer forever,” whilst this eccentric man was being drenched with rain, shouting at the top of his voice. In the course of the day he appeared, we believe, in no less than five different costumes.’ John’s exuberance may have had something to do with the £9 2s worth of champagne which he bought on credit to share with his friends and the crowd – but forgot to pay for resulting in yet another court case! In 1860 it would take a skilled tradesman 45 days to earn that much money.
