John Normansell (December 1830 – 24 December 1875) was a British

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

. Born in

Torkington Torkington in Greater Manchester, England, is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. History In 1875 Torkington was one of eight civil parishes of Cheshire to be included in the Stockport rural sanitary district. The sanitary district b ...

, Normansell was orphaned at an early age, and all his three siblings died while young, Normansell being brought up by his grandparents and an aunt. He became a surface worker at a coal mine at the age of seven, and moved to work underground when he was fourteen. When he married, at the age of twenty-two, he was illiterate, but his wife could read and write and persuaded him to learn.Joyce Bellamy and John Saville, "Normansell, John (1830-75)", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.I, pp.255-257 Shortly after his marriage, Normansell moved to

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, then on to

Silkstone Silkstone is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, between the towns of Barnsley and Penistone. The parish includes the village of Silk ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, where in 1857 he was elected as

checkweighman {{Short description, Occupation within mining, especially coal A checkweighman (occasionally checkmeasurer or checkweigher) is a person who is responsible for weighing coal or another mined substance, and thereby determining the payment due to each ...

. This was unusual, as at most mines at the time, checkweighman was a position appointed by the owner. The following year, he was a founding member of the South Yorkshire Miners' Association (SYMA), which proved immediately successful. In 1863, Normansell fell into dispute with the owner of his mine, who sacked him, but the union supported him and, after seven months out of work, he won a court case for his reinstatement. A nineteen-week-long lock-out of miners in 1864 greatly weakened the SYMA, membership fell, and the union sought a new secretary. Normansell took up the post, working with his assistant,

Philip Casey Philip Casey (1950-2018) was an Irish poet and novelist. Life Philip Casey was born in London on 27 June 1950. His parents were from County Laois and County Sligo and they returned to live in County Wexford, Ireland. After spending some years ...

, and within ten years, membership had increased tenfold to more than 20,000. Normansell became a nationally prominent leader of the miners, attending the first few annual

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

es, and organising an important annual miners' gala. He first stood for election to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

Town Council as a Liberal-Labour representative in 1871, and was successful the following year, the first worker to win election to the council. From 1874, a recession led to a decline in the mining industry. Normansell recommended that SYMA members accepted wage reductions, which proved highly controversial. He was also accused of poor management of the union's finances, and decided to offer his resignation, but the union's executive convinced him to remain. He died at the end of the year, aged only 45.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Normansell, John 1830 births 1875 deaths Councillors in South Yorkshire Trade unionists from Yorkshire Liberal-Labour (UK) politicians Trade unionists from Stockport