James Frederick Shillaker (28 January 1870 – 20 July 1943) was a British

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politician. He was born in the

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, and was the son of a

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sergeant. He was educated at

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Grammar School and the

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, benefiting from an educational foundation established in the 17th century for children of the parish of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate. In 1890 he was one of the founding members of the

Fawcett Association The Fawcett Association was a trade union representing postal clerks in London. History The union was founded in 1890. It was named after Henry Fawcett, who it considered had been sympathetic to workers when he was Postmaster General. For most o ...

, a

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of post office sorters, and in 1892 he joined the Labour Party in Islington. He was subsequently to become one of the first councillors for the party on Acton Urban District Council. He moved from the post office to the

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, where he was deputy regional director of the northern region from 1919 - 1923. He also edited a " lonely hearts" column entitled ''Friends in Council'' in ''

T. P.'s Weekly Thomas Power O'Connor (5 October 1848 – 18 November 1929), known as T. P. O'Connor and occasionally as Tay Pay (mimicking his own pronunciation of the initials ''T. P.''), was an Irish nationalist politician and journalist who served as a ...

'' for fourteen years. In

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he was chosen by the Labour Party to contest the parliamentary seat of Acton. He was successful in a three-cornered contest, unseating the sitting

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, Sir

Harry Brittain Sir Harry Ernest Brittain, Order of the British Empire, KBE, Order of St Michael and St George, CMG (24 December 1873 — 9 July 1974) was a British journalist and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician. Biography Brittain was born i ...

by 467 votes. Two years later there was a further general election. This time it was a straight fight between Shillaker and his Conservative opponent H J Duggan. There was a large swing against Labour, and Duggan won the seat by a convincing majority of 12,272 votes. Shillaker did not stand for election again. In July 1943 he died suddenly at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

while visiting Labour MP Frederick Pethick-Lawrence.

Personal life

In 1891 he married Carrie Heaton, and they had one son.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shillaker, James 1870 births 1943 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1929–1931