John Wadsworth (1850 – 10 July 1921) 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 ...

and

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Lib-Lab The Liberal–Labour movement refers to the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions. These candidates stood for the British Parliament with the aim of representing ...

politician. Born in

West Melton West Melton is a former mining village in the parish of Brampton Bierlow in South Yorkshire, England. It lies between Wath upon Dearne and Brampton Bierlow, roughly 5 miles north of Rotherham and 5 miles south-east of Barnsley. The village fa ...

in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, Wadsworth worked as a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

and was elected

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 ...

. He joined the Yorkshire Miners Association, a constituent part of the

Miners Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

(MFGB), rising to become the Yorkshire Association's general secretary, then in 1904 its president. Wadsworth was elected 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

Hallamshire Hallamshire (or Hallam) is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area. The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Halla ...

at the 1906 general election. In 1909, with the other MFGB-sponsored MPs, he joined the Labour Party, retaining his seat in his new colours. In 1915 he resigned the Labour whip and re-joined the Liberals.''The History of the Liberal Party, 1895–1970'' by

Roy Douglas Richard Roy Douglas (12 December 1907 – 23 March 2015) was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, and Richard Addinsell, made well-known orchestrations of works su ...

(1971) p. 355 He continued as MP until the seat's abolition for the 1918 general election.

References

*Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees, ''Who's Who of British MPs: Volume II, 1886–1918''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wadsworth, John 1850 births 1921 deaths English trade unionists Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politics of Sheffield Liberal-Labour (UK) MPs Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 People from Brampton Bierlow