John Thomas Whitehead Mitchell (18 October 1828 – 16 March 1895) was a

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co-operative activist. Born in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

to a single mother, Mitchell received some education at the Red Cross Street National School, and at a Sunday school. He left at the age of 10 or 11, to work as a piecer in a cotton mill, for 13 hours a day. When he was 17, he joined the Providence Independent Chapel, and the following year, he signed a pledge to abstain from alcohol, with the support of his mother, who ran a beer house. In 1850, he was part of a group of members who left the chapel, to found the New Milton Congregational Church, but he remained active in the Sons of Temperance organisation.Joyce Bellamy and John Saville, "Mitchell, John Thomas Whitehead", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'' vol.I, pp.241–242 In 1848, a contact at the chapel found Mitchell work as a sorter in his wool warehouse, and he eventually rose to become the warehouse manager. He eventually left in 1867, to become a flannel dealer. In 1853, Mitchell joined the

Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844, was an early consumers' co-operative, and one of the first to pay a patronage dividend, forming the basis for the modern co-operative movement. Although other co-operatives preceded it, ...

, joining its committee in 1856, and becoming secretary in 1857. He was a founder of the Rochdale Co-operative Manufacturing Society in 1854, and later became its chair. In 1869, he attended the first

Co-operative Congress The Co-operative Congress is the national conference of the UK Co-operative Movement. The first of the modern congresses took place in 1869 following a series of meetings called the "Owenite Congress" in the 1830s. Members of Co-operatives UK ...

, and this inspired him to organise district meetings of the

Co-operative Union Co-operatives UK is a British co-operative federation described as "the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprise throughout the UK". It was founded in 1870 as the Co-operative Central Board, changing its name to the Co-oper ...

. In 1874, he was elected as a

Co-operative Wholesale Society A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...

(CWS) board member, becoming its chair before the end of the year. In his period as chair, the CWS grew to have a turnover of millions of pounds, and employed thousands of people. Mitchell's position gradually became full-time, although his compensation remained around £150 per year. Mitchell gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Labour in 1892, and served as President of the Co-operative Congress in both 1879 and 1892. He served as liquidator of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Productive Society in 1878, and was able to keep it running with a loan from the CWS Bank, continuing to manage the business until his death, after which the CWS took it over. In 1893, he was awarded the Order of the Golden Cross, for facilitating trade with Greece. In both 1893 and 1894, Mitchell stood unsuccessfully as a

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candidate for Rochdale Town Council. He died the following year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, John Thomas Whitehead 1828 births 1895 deaths People from Rochdale Presidents of Co-operative Congress