Clara Grace James (30 October 1866 – 10 August 1954) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

trade unionist 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 Employee ben ...

. Born in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

, then in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, James's parents died when she was young, and she was brought up by a former employee of her father. She found work making confectionery, and in 1889 she joined the Women's Trade Union Association (WTUA). As a result, she was sacked from her job, but the WTUA helped her find work as a typist, while she volunteered as an organiser and assistant secretary of the WTUA. Its activist Amie Hicks provided her with accommodation and legally adopted James as her daughter.James, Clara Grace
, ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' Through the WTUA, James founded the Confectioners' Union, and served as its general secretary. She worked with

Clementina Black Clementina Maria Black (27 July 1853 – 19 December 1922) was an English writer, feminist and pioneering trade unionist, closely connected with Marxist and Fabian socialists. She worked for women's rights at work and for women's suffrage. Ear ...

and

John Burns John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician, particularly associated with London politics and Battersea. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was ...

to win a strike among chocolate makers in 1890, but the union faced high levels of opposition from employers and a highly mobile workforce, leading to its decline and dissolution in 1892. Thereafter, James focused her efforts on trying to organise box-makers. Lilian Gilchrist Thompson paid the WTUA £70 a year for two years to employ James as an investigator. James and Hicks were the only two women to give evidence to the 1891 Royal Commission on Labour. James also served as a delegate to the

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, and for a time was the only woman to do so. The WTUA was refounded in 1894 as the Women's Industrial Council (WIC), and James remained active within it, serving on both its investigation and organisation committees. However, with her sponsorship having concluded, Thompson instead paid for her training as a gymnastics teacher. Once she had completed this, James set up a series of "Working Girls' Clubs", providing lectures, physical drills, social meetings and citizenship classes. These proved popular, and in 1899 the WIC founded the Clubs Industrial Association to formalise this activity. Among the young women who attended her classes was

Margaret Bondfield Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in th ...

. James eventually left the Clubs Industrial Association, founding the rival Working Girls at Play organisation, which by 1909 organised 22 regular clubs across London. She began suffering from poor health and had to give up teaching, retiring to

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

. There, she served as a parish councillor, and ran a holiday home for working girls from London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Clara 1866 births 1954 deaths Trade unionists from Kent People from Deptford British women trade unionists People from Canvey Island Councillors in Essex Women councillors in England