James Henry Thomas (3 October 1874 – 21 January 1949), sometimes known as Jimmy Thomas or Jim Thomas, was a Welsh

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 benefits (s ...

and Labour (later National Labour) politician. He was involved in a

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, party officials and lobbyists can be accused of various illegal, corrupt, uneth ...

involving budget leaks.

Early career and trade union activities

Thomas was born in

Newport, Monmouthshire Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-largest au ...

, the son of a young unmarried mother. He was raised by his grandmother and began work at twelve years of age, soon starting a career as a railway worker. He became an official of the

Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal ** Pan am ...

and in 1913 helped to organise its merger with two smaller trade unions on the railways to form the

National Union of Railwaymen The National Union of Railwaymen was a trade union of railway workers in the United Kingdom. The largest railway workers' union in the country, it was influential in the national trade union movement. History The NUR was an industrial union ...

(now part of the

National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (commonly known as the RMT) is a British trade union covering the transport sector. Its current President is Alex Gordon and its current General Secretary is Mick Lynch. The RMT is on ...

). Thomas was elected NUR general secretary in 1916, a post he held until 1931. Thomas was general secretary during the successful national rail strike of 1919 that was jointly called by the NUR and

Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is a British trade union representing train drivers. It is part of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation. At the end of ...

against proposed wage reductions. In 1921 Thomas played a leading role in the Black Friday crisis, in which rail and transport unions failed to come to the aid of the National Union of Mineworkers, who were facing wage reductions. Before the

1926 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 governme ...

the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...

asked Thomas to negotiate with Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Government, but the talks were unsuccessful and the strike went ahead. James Henry Thomas circa 1920

Political career

Thomas began his political career as a Labour Party local

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

for Swindon. He was elected to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

in 1910 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

, replacing Richard Bell. He was re-elected in the 1918 general election and was considered as a potential candidate for the role of Chairman of the

Parliamentary Labour Party In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour ...

and by extension Leader of the Opposition. He declined in order to focus on running the NUR, and the post went to

William Adamson William Adamson (2 April 1863 – 23 February 1936) was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour politician. He was Leader of the Labour Party from 1917 to 1921 and served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1924 and during 1929–1931 in the ...

. He was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies in the incoming Labour government of 1924 under Ramsay MacDonald. In the second Labour government of 1929 Macdonald wanted to appoint Thomas as Foreign Secretary, but the post was already desired by

Arthur Henderson Arthur Henderson (13 September 1863 – 20 October 1935) was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the first Labour cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniquely, served three separate terms as Leader of th ...

. Thomas was made Lord Privy Seal with special responsibility for employment. He rejected the Mosley Memorandum issued by junior ministers led by

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

proposing

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

programs and the expansion of Imperial Preference into an autarkic trade bloc to resolve interwar unemployment and poverty in 1930. Mosley subsequently resigned from the Cabinet, and in the ensuing reshuffle Thomas was reassigned to the post of

Secretary of State for the Dominions The position of Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs was a British cabinet-level position created in 1925 responsible for British relations with the Dominions – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free S ...

. Thomas retained that position in MacDonald's National Government (1931–1935). As a result of joining the National Government he was expelled from the Labour Party and the NUR. For the first few months of the National Government in 1931 he also served as Colonial Secretary once more. One of the problems he had to cope with was the Australian cricket

bodyline Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman ...

affair, which he said was one of the most difficult he faced. Thomas served as Secretary of State for the Colonies once more from 1935 until May 1936, when he was forced to resign from politics. It was revealed that he had been entertained by stock exchange speculators and had dropped heavy hints as to tax changes planned in the budget. For example, while playing golf, he shouted " Tee up!", which was taken as a suggestion that the duties on tea were to rise.

Personal life

Thomas was made a Freeman of Newport in 1924. In May 2011 a casket given to him to celebrate the occasion was purchased at auction for Newport Museum. Despite his humble origins he had a reputation for mixing well with all levels of society. Among the Labour ministers he was a favourite with

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

. It was from laughing at a bawdy joke Thomas told the king that the latter split a post-operative wound from lung abscess surgery, delaying his recovery to near the 1929 General Election.

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

is said to have been in tears during Thomas's resignation speech as Colonial Secretary; and King Edward VIII recalled Thomas saying, as he returned his seals of office to the king, 'Thank God your old Dad never got to hear of this'. Thomas was known as a natty dresser, and was caricatured by the cartoonist David Low as "Lord Dress Suit". After leaving parliament, Thomas served as company chairman of the British Amalgamated Transport Ltd.

Death

He died in London, aged seventy-four, in 1949. After cremation at

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

, his ashes were buried at Swindon. His son Leslie Thomas became a Conservative Member of Parliament.

Literary reference

Thomas is mentioned in ''

Have His Carcase ''Have His Carcase'' is a 1932 locked-room mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers, her seventh novel featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and the second in which Harriet Vane appears. Plot During a hiking holiday on the South West coast of England, the detec ...

'', a 1932 detective novel by

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

. Thomas's custom of wearing a dress suit is cited as an apparent certainty that could fail unlike the

Second Law of Thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal experience concerning heat and energy interconversions. One simple statement of the law is that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects (or "downhill"), unles ...

, which appears to govern the case in a metaphorical way. In ''

Lord Peter Wimsey Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries fo ...

'', the 1975

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

production of

' 1931 novel '' Five Red Herrings'', Thomas is mentioned in a snatch of background dialogue. A Scottish railway porter bursts out in an angry tirade: "You call this a Socialist Government? Things are harder than ever for a working man, and as for Jimmy Thomas, he has sold himself, lock, stock and barrel, to the capitalists!" He is referred to in the comic song of 1932 by Norman Long, "On the Day that Chelsea went and won the Cup". In a dream setting out the outlandish and impossible things that might happen on such an unusual day, the line is used "and De Valera put a statue of Jim Thomas on his lawn, on the day that Chelsea went and won the cup". He is mentioned in "No Mean City" by A. McArthur and H. Kingsley Long, "Now he insisted on reading extracts from a speech by J. H. Thomas, declaring, moreover, that the railwaymen had never had abler leader" (page 89).

References

Bibliography

External links

*
A short online biography of Jimmy Thomas.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, J. H. 1874 births 1949 deaths Lords Privy Seal Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies British Secretaries of State for Dominion Affairs General Secretaries of the National Union of Railwaymen National Labour (UK) politicians Welsh trade unionists People from Newport, Wales Councillors in Wiltshire UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Members of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress Presidents of the Trades Union Congress Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International Secretaries of State for the Colonies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants-sponsored MPs National Union of Railwaymen-sponsored MPs