Tom Myers (15 February 1872 – 21 December 1949) 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, ...

Labour Party politician. Born in

Mirfield Mirfield () is a town and civil parish in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury. At the 2011 census it had a population of 19,563. Mirfield f ...

, Myers left school at the age of 12 and spent several years working in coal mines and factories 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 ...

before taking up employment at a glass bottle works. An early supporter of the Labour Party, he was elected to Thornhill Urban District Council in 1904. In 1910 the urban district was absorbed by the

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

, and Myers became a member of Dewsbury Borough Council. At the 1918 general election Myers contested the constituency of Spen Valley for the Labour Party, but failed to unseat the sitting

Coalition Liberal The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victo ...

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 ...

, Sir

Thomas Whittaker Thomas or Tom Whittaker may refer to: *Thomas Bartlett Whitaker (born 1979), American criminal, former Texas Death Row inmate *Thomas Whittaker (martyr) (1614–1646), English Roman Catholic priest *Thomas Whittaker (metaphysician) (1856–1935), E ...

. Whittaker died in November 1919, and Myers was selected to fight the ensuing by election. The by-election came at the same time as a serious split in the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

over continuing support for the coalition government: Colonel B C Fairfax was nominated as the Coalition Liberal candidate while

Sir John Simon John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, (28 February 1873 – 11 January 1954), was a British politician who held senior Cabinet posts from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War. He is one of only three peop ...

stood as an Independent Liberal. The poll was held on 20 December 1919, although the votes were not counted until 3 January of the following year. Myers received 11,962 votes and was elected to the

Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

, with a majority of 1,718 over Simon, and the coalition candidate trailing in a poor third place. The result was seen as sensational, with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' describing it as a "political event of great significance" with voters deserting the government candidate in "a humiliation which cannot be explained away". The coalition finally fell in 1922, with a general election called for November. Myers defended his seat against Sir John Simon, now the Liberal candidate, and W O R Holton of 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 ...

. Myers was defeated by Simon. He tried unsuccessfully to regain the seat in 1923 and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

. While in 1922 Myers had only lost by 787 votes, Simon's margin of victory increased to over 1,000 in 1923 and to 4,475 in 1924, although on that occasion there was no Conservative candidate. He returned to Dewsbury Borough Council in 1935, and was the town's

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

in 1940–1941. He died in Dewsbury in 1949, aged 77.

References

External links

* 1872 births 1949 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1918–1922 People from Mirfield {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub