George Alfred Spencer (1873 – 21 November 1957) was an English miner, trade union leader and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from 1918 to 1929 for Broxtowe.

Family

George Spencer was the second son of eighteen children. His youngest daughter was the wife of the director of the

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

in the 1930s.

Trade unionism

Spencer was an official of the Nottinghamshire Miners Association, which was affiliated to 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 1926, at the height of the

General Strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

, he negotiated on the behalf of the

Nottinghamshire Miners Association The Nottinghamshire Miners' Association was a trade union representing coal miners in Nottinghamshire, England. A Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Miners' Association was founded in the 1860s, but became moribund by the 1870s, although some branc ...

a deal with the local mine owners at the request of miners from Digby Pit, near

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

, in Nottinghamshire. However, that brought him into conflict with the MFGB, which wished to see the strike continue. Unhappy with the influence of the MFGB, he led a breakaway from the NMA and set up the Nottinghamshire and District Miners' Industrial Union (NMIU) based mostly in

The Dukeries The Dukeries is an area of the county of Nottinghamshire so called because it contained four ducal seats. It is south of Worksop, which has been called its "gateway". The area was included within the ancient Sherwood Forest. The ducal seats wer ...

, which lasted for eleven years separate from 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 1937, a merger agreement was reached between the NMA and the NMIU, with Spencer becoming the president of the new organisation.

Political career

During the Great War he combined with fellow Nottinghamshire Miners official and Liberal MP

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...

to attempt to take the Nottinghamshire Miners Association out of the Miners Federation of Great Britain political fund, as he believed in trade union independence from party political control. He was elected to parliament in 1918 as Labour MP for Broxtowe, and re-elected at the next three general elections. Following the Nottinghamshire miners union split of 1926, he was expelled from the Labour party. He continued to sit in parliament until 1929, speaking from the Liberal party benches.The Derbyshire miners:a study in industrial and social history (1962) The Broxtowe Labour party, instead of replacing him with another local miners candidate, chose

Seymour Cocks Frederick Seymour Cocks, (25 October 1882 – 29 May 1953) was a British Labour MP. Born in Darlington, Cocks was educated at Plymouth College and became a journalist. He joined the Independent Labour Party and wrote several tracts for the ...

, an outsider with no mining background.

References

External links

* Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 Miners' labor disputes Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs 1873 births 1957 deaths People from Stapleford, Nottinghamshire Members of Nottinghamshire County Council English trade unionists {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub