Enoch Edwards (April 1852 – 28 June 1912) 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 ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Biography

Edwards was born at Talk-o'-the Hill Staffordshire on 10 April 1852. He was the son of a pitman, and worked as a boy in a

coal-mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

. In 1870 he became treasurer of the North Staffordshire Miners' Association and was elected secretary to the same body in 1877. In 1880 he became president of the Midland Miners' Association; he was later president 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 ...

in 1904. In 1884 he went to

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. T ...

, where he became a member of the school board and town council in 1886, and later he became alderman and mayor. He was also a member of the

Staffordshire County Council Staffordshire County Council is the top-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshir ...

. He was elected to Parliament as the

Lib-Lab The Liberal–Labour movement refers to the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions. These candidates stood for the British Parliament with the aim of representing ...

MP for

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

in 1906. He then was a Labour Party MP in 1909. He died at Southport 28 June 1912 aged 60.

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* 1852 births 1912 deaths Presidents of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Liberal-Labour (UK) MPs UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 Members of Staffordshire County Council People from Talke Trade unionists from Staffordshire 19th-century British businesspeople {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub