France Littlewood (5 August 1863 in

Honley __NOTOC__ Honley is a large village in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated near to Holmfirth and Huddersfield, and on the banks of the River Holme in the Holme Valley. According to the 2011 ...

– 22 January 1941) was a British

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

activist.

Biography

Born in

, then in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, Littlewood studied at Almondbury Grammar School before working in his father's dye works. He joined the Liberal Party, which he represented on Honley Local Union, but left in 1891 to join the new

Colne Valley Labour Union The Colne Valley Labour Union (CVLU) was a political party based in the Colne Valley, in Yorkshire, in England. The first labour party organised on the basis of a Parliamentary constituency, it successfully backed Tom Mann as secretary of the Ind ...

. In 1893, he was a founder member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and he rapidly rose to prominence, becoming national treasurer in 1896, serving until 1902.France Littlewood
/ref> He held a seat for the party on Honley

Urban District Council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

from 1895 to 1896. His family's firm was declared bankrupt in 1899, although he and his brothers managed to retain ownership of the mill. At the

1907 Colne Valley by-election The Colne Valley by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 18 July 1907. The constituency returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. Vacancy ...

, Littlewood was a leading supporter of Victor Grayson, an ILP member who was refused national support because he did not support the Labour Party.David Clark, ''Victor Grayson: Labour's Lost Leader'' Grayson was successful, and Littlewood regained his seat on the Urban District Council, in addition to one on the Board of Guardians. However, the newly renamed Colne Valley Socialist League followed Grayson in moving away from the ILP and towards syndicalism, a position which Littlewood opposed. In 1910, Grayson lost his seat, and the local group split from the ILP, joining the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...

on its formation, the following year. Littlewood sided with a minority loyal to the ILP. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Littlewood served as a sergeant with the Volunteer Battalion of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. He remained an ILP supporter until 1928, when he resigned in support of Philip Snowden's economic policies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Littlewood, France Councillors in West Yorkshire Duke of Wellington's Regiment soldiers Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members British Army personnel of World War I People from Honley 1863 births 1941 deaths Military personnel from Yorkshire