Wilfred Wellock (2 January 1879 – 22 July 1972) was a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians. Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environmentalism, ...

and sometime

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician and MP.

Life

He was imprisoned as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

in the

First World War 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 ...

. He was elected at

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

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

at a by-election in February 1927, having unsuccessfully contested 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 ...

. He was re-elected in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, but at the 1931 general election he was defeated by 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. Wellock stood again at the 1935 election, but did not regain his seat. Wellock was an active member of both the

No More War Movement The No More War Movement was the name of two pacifist organisations, one in the United Kingdom and one in New Zealand. British Group The British No More War Movement (NMWM) was founded in 1921 as a pacifist and socialist successor to the No-Consc ...

and the

Peace Pledge Union The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) is a non-governmental organisation that promotes pacifism, based in the United Kingdom. Its members are signatories to the following pledge: "War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determine ...

. He was a prolific pamphleteer. Wellcock was a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

. Wellock's work was admired by

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

, who stated in his book '' Science, Liberty and Peace'' that Wellock and Ralph Borsodi's work constituted a "tiny piece of decentralist leaven" within the "whole large lump of contemporary society".

Publications

* Wellock, Wilfred (1917). ''A Modern Idealist''. novel.(London : C. W. Daniel) * Wellock, Wilfred (1921). ''Christian Communism, etc''. (pp. 43. National Labour Press: Manchester) * Wellock, Wilfred (1922)
''India's Awakening: Its National and World-Wide Significance''
(pp. 69. Labour Publishing Co.: London) * Wellock, Wilfred (1938). ''Destruction or Construction-Which? An open letter to members of the Labour Party'', (pp. 11. Peace Pledge Union: London]) * Wellock, Wilfred (1943). ''A Mechanistic or a Human Society?''. (pp. 32. Wilfred Wellock: Quinton) * Wellock, Wilfred (1950). ''Gandhi as a social revolutionary'' (Birmingham : W. Wellock) * Wellock, Wilfred (1951). ''The Challenge of our Times. Annihilation or creative revolution?'' (pp. 15. London) * Wellock, Wilfred (1955). ''Not by Bread alone. A study of America's expanding economy''. [(pp. 16. Housmans: London) * Wellock, Wilfred (1961). ''Off the beaten track : adventures in the art of living.'' * Wellock, Wilfred (''c.'' 1961). ''The crisis in our civilisation : reorganisation by industry a key to world peace'', (London : Society for Democratic Integration in Industry) * Wellock, Wilfred. ''Youth and adventure: on which side shall I enlist?'' * Wellock, Wilfred. ''Power or peace western industrialism and world leadership'' * Wellock, Wilfred. ''Rebuilding Britain. A new peace orientation''. (pp. 47. Hallmark Books: London)

References

External links

* 1879 births 1972 deaths British conscientious objectors British pacifists Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 English pamphleteers {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub

Life

Publications

References

Further reading

External links