John George Hancock (15 October 1857 – 19 July 1940) was a
Liberal and sometimes
Labour Party politician and Trade Unionist in the
United Kingdom.
Background
He was the eldest son of Joseph Hancock of
Pinxton
Pinxton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the eastern boundary of Nottinghamshire, England, just south of the Pinxton Interchange at Junction 28 of the M1 motorway where the A38 road meets the M1. Pinxton is part of the Bolsover ...
, Derbyshire. In 1882 he married Mary Hoten of Pinxton.
Early career
Hancock worked at a pit as a boy. He formed the Pinxton Branch of the
Nottinghamshire Miners' Association. In 1893 he became the General Secretary of the Nottinghamshire Miners' Association. He became a miners agent and the miners association Financial Secretary in 1896.
Political career
He was elected as (MP) for
Mid Derbyshire
Mid Derbyshire is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Pau ...
at a
by-election in July 1909, as a Liberal candidate, sponsored by the Derbyshire Miners Association. Hancock held the seat and managed a slightly reduced majority;
In 1909, he was one of a group of Miners Union sponsored Liberal MPs who were instructed by the
Miners Federation of Great Britain to take the Labour party whip in the House of Commons and stand at the following election as Labour party candidates. Hancock held the seat at the following General election under his new party label;
He held the seat at the following General election;
He served as a
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
in Nottinghamshire. Relations between the Labour and Liberal parties deteriorated after 1910 and they were expected to field candidates against each other in some cases at the next election, anticipated to be in 1915. Hancock decided that he would rather defend his seat as a Liberal, so crossed the floor in 1915 to re-join the Liberals. During the war he combined with future Labour MP
George Spencer to attempt to take the Nottinghamshire Miners Association out of the Miners Federation of Great Britain political fund.
[Industrial Politics and the 1926 Mining Lockout]
He was then returned unopposed for the new
Belper constituency. In 1921, after 25 years service, he stood down from the post of Financial Secretary of the Nottinghamshire Miners Association, but continued as a miners agent.
He held the seat again at the
1922 election, this time, for the first time, against a
Labour Party opponent.
However, he was defeated at the
1923 general election by the
Conservative Party candidate,
Herbert Wragg.
Aged 65, he did not stand for
Parliament again. In 1927, following the General Strike, there was a split in the Nottinghamshire miners and Hancock followed the Association's General Secretary and Labour MP,
George Spencer in the creation of the more moderate
Nottinghamshire Miners' Industrial Union
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The tradition ...
. Hancock became the breakaway union's Treasurer, serving until 1937 when the two miners organisations reunited.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hancock, John George
1857 births
1940 deaths
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Liberal-Labour (UK) MPs
Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs
UK MPs 1906–1910
UK MPs 1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
UK MPs 1918–1922
UK MPs 1922–1923
People from Pinxton