Chapman Cohen (1 September 1868 – 4 February 1954) was an English freethinker, atheist, and secularist writer and lecturer.
[5] Cohen and his wife, Celia, had two children; a son, Raymond, who entered the medical profession, and a daughter, Daisy, who died at the age of 29 from tuberculosis.
In 1897 Cohen began contributing weekly articles to G. W. Foote's Freethinker, having previously written accounts of his lecture tours.
A study of Chapman's engagements as listed in The Freethinker reveal that during the 1919 indoor lecturing season, he spoke at no less than 34 venues on more than 50 occasions.
Venues included Manchester and Leicester (often), Abertillery, South Shields, Swansea, Glasgow, Paisley, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Belfast, Leeds.
Cohen looked puzzled, scratched his head and replied "Not tonight, Josephine?” In 1940, summarising his own contribution to the secularist movement, Cohen wrote: For about forty-four years I have been busy in the interests of Freethought with my pen as well as with my tongue, and for about forty-two years I have been a regular writer for one of the oldest Freethought journals in Europe, and with a single exception, the oldest in the world.
For twenty-four years I have been the official editor of that journal, and for the same period, President of the National Secular Society, the only organisation for the propagation of militant Freethought in the British Isles.
The series of eighteen Pamphlets for the People makes the case for freethought and secularism with great clarity and force.
According to Edward Royle (2004), "as an organizer Cohen did much to build up the resources of secularism in the inter-war years, but by 1949, when he was persuaded to resign as president, many members felt he had stayed on too long."
[14] On his death, The Times printed a short obituary of Cohen, which said: He was the author of many books setting forth the freethought philosophy of life, which had a large sale, and he was outstanding as a forthright, witty and courteous debater and lecturer.