Robert Chisholm Robertson (1861 - March 1930) was a Scottish

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

. Born in

Limerigg Limerigg is a village in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. It lies on the B825 road between Slamannan and Caldercruix surrounded by extensive woodlands on the northern side and lying next to the Black Loch, which formerly fed the Monkland Cana ...

, then in

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling. It borders Perth ...

, Robertson started working in a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

at the age of eight, but after the Mines Regulation Act 1872 prohibited children working underground, he returned to school. He returned to mining aged thirteen, and through studying at night school, he and his brother both obtained mine manager's certificates. His brother later became superintendent of mines for

Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak Sir Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, GCMG (''Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke''; 3 June 1829 – 17 May 1917), born ''Charles Anthoni Johnson'', ruled as the head of state of Raj of Sarawak from 3 August 1868 until his death. He succeeded his un ...

, while Chisholm Robertson turned to

trade unionism A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

. In 1886, he was elected as the first secretary of the Forth and Clyde Valley Miners' Association, serving until 1896, and also President of the Scottish Miners' National Association. He was on the first executive of the

Miners Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

, founded in 1889, while in 1894, he was the founding secretary of the

Scottish Miners' Federation The National Union of Scottish Mineworkers (NUSW) is a trade union in Scotland, founded in 1894 as the Scottish Miners Federation. It joined the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and in 1914 changed its name to National Union of Scottish Minew ...

.Ian MacDougall, ''Mid and East Lothian Miners' Association minutes: 1894-1918'', pp.42-43 Robertson co-authored an influential labour programme with

Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908. Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. ...

in the first issue of ''

The Miner is a 1908 novel by Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki. The novel recounts the story of a young man who begins working in a mine following a failed relationship, with extensive attention paid to his perceptions, both at the time of events and in re ...

'', used in his Mid Lanarkshire by-election campaign, but he fell out with Hardie two years later, accusing him of neglecting mining issues at the expense of supporting seamen. Chisholm Robertson was also active on

Glasgow Trades Council {{Use British English, date=January 2018 Glasgow Trades Council is an association of trade union branches in Glasgow in Scotland. The trades council was founded in 1858 as the Glasgow United Trades Council.Archives Hub,Records of Glasgow District ...

, and was the secretary of the Scottish United Trades Councils Labour Party. He stood for the party in

at the 1892 general election, but was not elected, taking only 663 votes. The following year, he was the party's delegate to the founding conference of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, and he was elected to the new organisation's first

National Administrative Council The National Administrative Council (NAC) was the executive council of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), a British socialist party which was active from 1893 until 1975. Creation The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was founded at a conference in ...

. In the mid-1890s,

Robert Smillie Robert Smillie (17 March 1857 – 16 February 1940) was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was a leader of the coal miners, and played a central role in moving support from the miners away from the Liberal Party to the L ...

successfully challenged him for the secretaryship of the local Miners' Association,Former Miners' Leader - Death of Mr Robert Chisholm Robertson
, ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'', 14 March 1930 prompting Robertson to emigrate to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Robin Page Arnot Robert "Robin" Page Arnot (15 December 1890 – 18 May 1986), best known as R. Page Arnot, was a British Communist journalist and politician. Early years Robert Page Arnot, known to his friends as "Robin", was born in 1890 at Greenock, the s ...

, ''A history of the Scottish miners from the earliest times'', p.74 Robertson returned from Australia and started a business in Glasgow, using his spare time to write in support of Christian fundamentalism and arguing that trade unions should avoid all potentially political issues. Even after his retirement, he continued to write letters to newspapers attacking Smillie.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Chisholm 1861 births 1930 deaths Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members British trade union leaders Scottish miners Scottish socialists Scottish emigrants to Australia