(Allen) Clement Edwards (7 June 1869 – 23 June 1938), usually known as Clem, was a
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
lawyer, journalist, trade union activist and
Liberal Party politician.
Family and education
Edwards was born in
Knighton in Radnorshire, the son of a master tailor and draper, one of seven children. He was educated at the local school in Knighton, undertook private studies and also attended evening classes at
Birkbeck Institute
, mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck.
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £4.3 m (2014)
, budget = £109 ...
in London. In 1890, Edwards married Fanny Emerson, the daughter of the superintendent of
Trinity House,
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...
. She died in 1920. Two years later Edwards was remarried, to Alice May Parker, a political colleague in the NDP. They had one son, John Charles Gordon Clement Edwards (1924–2004) who served in the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
in the Second World War and later became a solicitor.
In religion, although born into an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
family, Edwards became a
Congregationalist and was considered a typical
Welsh-speaking
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has als ...
champion of
nonconformist
Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to:
Culture and society
* Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior
*Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity
** ...
causes.
The law
Edwards began his law career working in a solicitor's office. In 1899, he was
called to the Bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
by the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
. As a
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
specialising in trade union and labour law he was briefed in some of the most important cases of the day concerning the rights of trade unions to engage in industrial and political action. He was drawn to trade union cases and in the
Taff Vale case of 1901 he was one of Counsel briefed on behalf of the trade union. He was also briefed in another railway action, the
Osborne case, concerning trade union support for MPs
Trade Union activism
Edward's law work for the unions strengthened his political and social awareness and from the 1880s, he was involved in the formation of trade unions for unskilled workers. Despite his legal connections to the railway unions, Edwards developed a special connection with the dock workers and was at one time assistant secretary of the
Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union
The Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers Union (DWRGLU), often known as the Dockers' Union, was a British trade union representing dock workers in the United Kingdom.
History
The union was founded in 1887 as the Tea Operatives and Gen ...
.
He was also general secretary of the federation of dockland and transport unions. Edwards had a flair for mass organisation. In the great dock strike of 1889, he was one of
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 ...
' lieutenants in the organisation of the dispute and in 1893, he organised a mass demonstration in
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
in aid of miners and their families undergoing severe hardship and was also responsible for another demonstration at the same venue by 30,000 laundresses.
During his time working for the dock labourers, Edwards was to play a leading part in the public inquiry which looked into the sinking of the
RMS Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
. He put the miners' case following the infamous 1913
Senghenydd Colliery Disaster in which 439 men died. But Edwards never conceived of the trade unions as the
industrial arm of the socialist movement. He understood them as the working-man's defence against unfair employers and a protection against an economic system which produced personal poverty, immorality, and misery.
Politics
From trade union activism, Edwards expanded into political activity, including radical journalism, becoming labour editor of the London newspaper
''The Sun'' in 1893 and then
''The Echo'' in 1894. He then transferred to the
''Daily News'' where he held the title Special Commissioner. Edwards was always active in the Welsh
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
tradition and was strongly opposed to a separate
Labour Party.
Edwards was a member of the
Fabian Society and in local politics he stood for election as
Progressive Party candidate for the
London School Board
The School Board for London, commonly known as the London School Board (LSB), was an institution of local government and the first directly elected body covering the whole of London.
The Elementary Education Act 1870 was the first to provide for ...
in 1894 in
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
before being elected to Islington council in 1898. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Liberal in
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
for
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
and in
1900
As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
for
Denbigh Boroughs
before winning in Denbigh in
1906
Events
January–February
* January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...
.
He stood for re-election there in
January 1910 but lost by just eight votes. However, he was quickly selected for another Welsh seat, this time with a more secure Liberal vote, and in
December 1910
The following events occurred in December 1910:
December 1, 1910 (Thursday)
* Porfirio Diaz was inaugurated for his eighth term as President of Mexico."Record of Current Events", ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (January 1911), pp ...
, he was elected as MP for the mining seat of
East Glamorganshire in a three-cornered contest against
Unionist and
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
opposition.
The coming of the First World War presented the Liberal Party with many difficult political decisions over essentially illiberal legislation such as the
Defence of the Realm Act
The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after it entered the First World War and was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war, such as the p ...
, which gave the government wide-ranging powers and on the question of
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
. As
W. Llewelyn Williams
William Llewelyn Williams known as Llewelyn Williams (10 March 1867 – 22 April 1922), was a Welsh journalist, lawyer and radical Liberal Party politician.
Background and early life
He was born at Brownhill, Llansadwrn, Towy Valley, Carmarthe ...
, Liberal MP for
Carmarthen put it, "...it would be a tragedy worse than war if, in order to win the war, England ceased to be the beacon of freedom and liberty she has been in the past." However it was hard to stand up against the tide of patriotic fervour sweeping the country and this infected Edwards as it did many others on the radical wing of the party.
National Democratic Party
With former union leader
Ben Tillett
Benjamin Tillett (11 September 1860 – 27 January 1943) was a British socialist, trade union leader and politician. He was a leader of the "new unionism" of 1889 that focused on organizing unskilled workers. He played a major role in founding ...
and other Labour men from a trade union background, Edwards backed
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
, notably in efforts to prevent industrial unrest and keep the war effort on track.
In 1916, the
British Workers League
The British Workers League was a 'patriotic labour' group which was anti-socialist and pro-British Empire. Founded originally as the ''Socialist National Defence Committee'', the league operated fro''May 1916''to 1927.
The league's origins lay ...
was formed as an organisation for patriotic labour to get behind the war effort and for commercial preference within the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. Edwards was drawn to the League which changed its name to the
National Democratic Party for the
1918 general election. The party won nine seats at the election. Edwards was the NDP candidate for
East Ham South
East Ham South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the East Ham district of London, which was in Essex until 1965. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the ...
where he was elected as a supporter of the
Coalition government
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
in 1918. He may have been granted the
Coalition coupon but was opposed by a Unionist and his Labour opponent was
Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson (13 September 1863 – 20 October 1935) was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the first Labour cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniquely, served three separate terms as Leader of th ...
the future leader of the Labour Party. Edwards was the chairman of the NDP in Parliament from 1918 to 1920. The development of the Labour Party, post-war industrial unrest of which Edwards continued to disapprove and the increasing unpopularity of the Lloyd George coalition, combined to undermine the NDP's appeal to patriotic labour and the party was wound up. Edwards defended East Ham South at the
1922 general election as a National Liberal supporter of Lloyd George, but was pushed into third place in a three-cornered contest won by Labour's
Alfred Barnes.
Later life
Edwards did not stand for Parliament again. After the demise of the NDP he re-joined the Liberal Party. He remained a champion of union rights during the industrial turmoil of the 1920s but took little part in public or political affairs after losing his Parliamentary seat.
He remained a Liberal Party member until 1931, when he lost faith with the party leaders and resigned his membership.
He continued in the law until retirement.
Death
Edwards died of cancer at Manor House Hospital,
Golders Green, on 23 June 1938. He was cremated at
Golders Green Crematorium.
[The Times, 24 June 1938 p1]
Publications
* ''Railway Nationalization'', Methuen & Co., 1898
* ''The Children's Labour Question'', Daily News, 1899
* (Jointly with George Haw) ''No Room to Live: the plaint of overcrowded London'', Wells Gardner & Co., London, 1900 (reprinted from the Daily News)
* ''The Compensation Act, 1906: Who pays? to whom, to what, and when it applies'', Chatto & Windus, 1907
* Articles and journalism on labour, economics, industry and politics
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Clement
1869 births
1938 deaths
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
National Democratic and Labour Party MPs
UK MPs 1906–1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
UK MPs 1918–1922
Welsh trade unionists
Members of the Middle Temple
Welsh barristers
Welsh Congregationalists
Members of the Fabian Society
National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) politicians