George Sinkinson (25 November 1874 – 14 January 1939) was a Labour Party politician who served as the

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 ...

(MP) for Berwick and Haddington. Born in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, Sinkinson began working at the age of 10 in a jute mill, where he remained until the age of 13. He then was an apprentice as a machine printer in News office in Barrow, before taking a job as a clerk in Vickers shipyard for several years. He relocated to Glasgow and was employed in steel works for 15 years, during which period he became active in the socialist movement. During the First World War, he was a store-keeper in a shipyard on the Clyde. He relocated to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1919. He served on

Edinburgh Trades Council {{Use British English, date=February 2017 The Edinburgh Trade Union Council brings together trade union branches in Edinburgh in Scotland. The first permanent trades council in Edinburgh appears to have been formed in 1853, one of the first in th ...

, and was also active in the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, chairing its East of Scotland federation. Sinkinson was elected at the general election of 1929, but lost his seat in the National Government landslide of 1931. In 1929, he left a Christian Science church before a service of thanksgiving for the recovery of King George VI to draw attention to the fact that the King had 11 doctors while many did not have access to healthcare. After his defeat, he remained active in politics as Labour organiser in Berwick and Haddington. He wrote three unpublished novels.

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* Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies UK MPs 1929–1931 1874 births 1939 deaths Independent Labour Party politicians People from Kendal Scottish Labour MPs Scottish socialists {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub