John Edmund Swan (1877 – 9 February 1956) was a Labour Party politician in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Swan was born in

Dipton, County Durham Dipton is a village located in County Durham, England. It is situated to the north-east of Consett, 3 miles south west of Burnopfield and a short distance to the north-west of Annfield Plain. The local village school is called Collierley Primary ...

. He became a coal miner, and was later 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 ...

, also becoming active in the

Durham Miners' Association The Durham Miners' Association (DMA) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1869 and its membership quickly rose to 4,000, but within a year had fallen back to 2,000. In December 1870, William Crawford becam ...

(DMA). He was elected at the 1918 general election as

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 Barnard Castle in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, but lost his seat at the 1922 election to the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

candidate,

John Edwin Rogerson John Edwin Rogerson (8 January 1865 – 23 March 1925) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of County Durham in 1905. He contested the 1918 general election in the Labour-held Barnar ...

. Out of Parliament, Swan devoted his time to the DMA, and he was elected as its general secretary in 1935, serving until 1945. He also remained active in the Labour Party, serving on its

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

from 1932 until 1941, and on both the

Annfield Plain Annfield Plain is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated on a plateau between the towns of Stanley, to the north-east, and Consett, to the west. According to the 2001 census, Annfield Plain has a population of 3,569. By the ti ...

Urban District Council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

, and the Lanchester Board of Guardians. In his spare time, Swan wrote the novels ''The Mad Miner'' and ''People of the Night'', and the play, ''On the Minimum''.

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* 1877 births 1956 deaths People from Dipton, County Durham Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1918–1922 {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub