Edward Lismer (1883 – 1947) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

trade unionist and political activist. Ted was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, the eldest son of Edward Lismer, a draper and his wife Harriett. His brother was Arthur Lismer who became a prominent artist in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He became a mechanical engineer and in about 1902 joined the

Steam Engine Makers' Society The Steam Engine Makers' Society (SEM) was an early trade union representing engineers in the United Kingdom. The union was founded in Liverpool in 1824, and was able to meet openly in Manchester by 1826, despite the Combination Act 1825 severel ...

. In 1905, he joined the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, but he was part of the minority who left in 1911 to join the British Socialist Party, resigning from this group in 1914. He became increasingly involved in trade unionism, and in 1912 was elected to the executive of the Sheffield Trades and Labour Council. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Lismer was elected as the president of the Engineering Trades Amalgamation Committee, which sought to bring together

shop steward A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...

s from across the engineering trades. This body was later renamed as the Sheffield Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee, and he worked closely with

J. T. Murphy John Thomas Murphy (9 December 1888 – 13 May 1965) was a British trade union organiser and Communist functionary. Murphy is best remembered as a leader of the communist labour movement in the United Kingdom from the middle 1920s until his resign ...

to establish the movement on a national basis, linking up with the

Clyde Workers' Committee The Clyde Workers Committee was formed to campaign against the Munitions Act. It was originally called the ''Labour Withholding Committee''. The leader of the CWC was Willie Gallacher, who was jailed under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 to ...

and other local organisations to form the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committees. In 1917, the Sheffield committee organised a major strike, in protest at the conscription of workers who had volunteered for munitions work in the factories. The strike spread nationwide, and led to meetings of 20,000 workers in Sheffield alone. Lismer was a founder of the Sheffield branch of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1920, and was also elected as vice chair of the Sheffield trades council. The following year, he was elected as the organising secretary of the new British Bureau of the

Red International of Labour Unions The Red International of Labor Unions (russian: Красный интернационал профсоюзов, translit=Krasnyi internatsional profsoyuzov, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Comm ...

, frequently working from Manchester. He was removed from this post in 1922, but instead became the organising secretary of the party's Sheffield district, and was placed on the Control Commission of the CPGB. In 1924, he moved to Manchester, but retained links with Sheffield, and was arrested there during the

1926 UK general strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governm ...

. Lismer entered an extramarital relationship, and in response, the CPGB removed him from his posts.Andrew Flinn and Kevin Morgan, "George Hardy", in: ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.XI, p.103 He moved to Chelsea, and became active in the local Labour Party, while remaining broadly supportive of communism, and active in International Class War Prisoners Aid. He visited the Soviet Union, but otherwise lived in obscurity until his death in 1947.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lismer, Ted 1883 births 1947 deaths Communist Party of Great Britain members Trade unionists from Sheffield