Harry Bernard Taylor, Baron Taylor of Mansfield,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, JP (18 September 1895 – 11 April 1991) was a British coalminer and politician who was a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for 25 years. He was then a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

for a further 25 years.

Mining

Taylor was from a mining family in

Mansfield Woodhouse Mansfield Woodhouse is a town and civil parish in the Mansfield District, Mansfield district of Nottinghamshire, England. It is about north of Mansfield, along the main A60 road in a wide, low valley between the Rivers River Maun, Maun and Rive ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

and left school at 14 to work at the Sherwood Colliery. After working at the coalface for several years, he was promoted to be a checkweighman. He was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Politics

A member of the

Miners' Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales, Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' ...

, Taylor also joined the Labour Party. He was elected to Mansfield-Woodhouse

Urban District Council In England and Wales, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local government responsibilities with a county council. ...

in 1925, also serving on the

Board of Guardians Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930. England and Wales Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the po ...

. From the 1929 general election he was Election Agent for Mansfield

Constituency Labour Party A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituencies. In Sc ...

, and organised the successful election campaigns of Charles Brown. Taylor kept the Mansfield seat Labour despite the electoral disaster of

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

and in slightly more favourable times in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

. That year he had himself been elected to

Nottinghamshire County Council Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the non-metropolitan county excludes the city of ...

, and he was president of the Nottinghamshire Miners' Association in 1936–37, and vice-president of the Notts Miners' Federated Union from 1937 to 1941.

Parliament

Mansfield's Labour MP Charles Brown died just before Christmas 1940. Taylor was his obvious successor and he was elected unopposed at a by-election in April 1941. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ben Smith, who was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aircraft Production in the wartime coalition government.

Ministerial office

Much of Taylor's concerns related to the welfare problems of miners and in the

post-war Labour government Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the first Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom on 26 July 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as prime minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 19 ...

he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jim Griffiths, the Minister of National Insurance. While this job normally entailed managing relations between the Minister and Parliamentary colleagues, Taylor also accompanied Griffiths on trips in the country. He was promoted to be Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of National Insurance in March 1950, after the 1950 general election, and served until the Labour government went out of office in October 1951.

Political outlook

In opposition, Taylor continued to take up issues such as workers' compensation for industrial injuries and improved welfare benefits. He often spoke on mining issues. During the Labour Party split in the early 1950s, Taylor sided with the left and

Aneurin Bevan Aneurin "Nye" Bevan Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, noted for spearheading the creation of the British National Health Service during his t ...

, opposing German rearmament and the development of the Hydrogen bomb. However, he was critical of the Soviet action in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1956 and thereafter. Following the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

, he was one of the MPs who signed a letter calling on U.S. President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

to withdraw Polaris and Thor missiles from the UK as a gesture in response to Soviet premier

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

withdrawing Soviet missiles from Cuba.

Peerage

Taylor announced his retirement at the age of 70 in December 1965. It was announced that he would be made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

in the

dissolution honours Crown Honours Lists are lists of honours conferred upon citizens of the Commonwealth realms. The awards are presented by or in the name of the reigning monarch, currently King Charles III, or his vice-regal representative. New Year Honours Hon ...

after the 1966 general election, and was created Baron Taylor of Mansfield, ''of

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...

in the

County of Nottingham A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) ''Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denotin ...

'' on 1 June 1966. He had already been appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 1966 New Year Honours. Taylor wrote his memoirs, "Uphill All the Way", in 1973.

House of Lords

In 1971 Taylor joined with Lord Blyton (another former miner MP made a Peer) to divide the

against the Industrial Relations Bill, a move of which the Labour whips did not approve. He voted for divorce reform but against legalised

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

. In the short Parliament of 1974 he was chosen to move the motion for an humble address in reply to the Queen's Speech. During the Common Market referendum campaign of 1975, Taylor campaigned for a 'No' vote. He was a diligent attender in the Lords, even in his 90s. In the 1988-89 session, Taylor attended 133 of 153 sitting days.

References

*W.D. Rubinstein, "The Biographical Dictionary of Life Peers" (St Martin's Press, New York, 1991) *M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981) *''The Times''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Bernard 1895 births 1991 deaths British conscientious objectors Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Councillors in Nottinghamshire Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Taylor of Mansfield Members of Nottinghamshire County Council Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs People from Mansfield Woodhouse UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs who were granted peerages Life peers created by Elizabeth II