Kier Hardie - Royal Baby

Richard Bell MP - Life & Death in the Shadow of Kier Hardie

Richard Bell was with Kier Hardie the first elected Labour Members of Parliament at the General election of 1900, however while Hardie has become a household name little is know of Richard Bell.

RICHARD "Dick" Bell ( 1859 - 1930 ), M.P. and trade union leader ;

Born 27th November 1859 at Penderyn , Brecknock, Brecon , son of Charles stone quarrier) and Ann Thomas .

His paternal grandparents were Scots who moved from Lincoln to farm at the Pantmawr, Ystradfellte . Shortly after 1860 his father, a quarryman, joined the Glamorgan police force and went to Merthyr Tydfil, where Richard had his rudimentary early education at a British School, but became a fluent welsh speaker.


Aged just thirteen Bell began work as an office boy in the Cyfarthfa iron-works at Merthyr Tydfil , then at Dowlais Ironworks before returning to his old employers as a shunter with locomotives. Bell's great ambition was to be be an engine driver. In 1876 Bell entered the employment of the Great Western Railway (GWR) company and was stationed at Pontypool Road, working his way up through the portering grades , where he joined the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants - railway union . In 1886 he was transferred to Swansea and became an under guard, and there, finding no union activities, he established a branch of the A.S.R.S. in 1887. An unofficial strike on the North Eastern Railway early in 1897 provided the occasion of Bell's promotion general secretary on a pro tem basis.

In 1899 a resolution was carried at the ASRS national conference calling for the establishment of a Labour Representation Conference in February 1900, this resolution being moved by James Holmes, the West of England organising for the ASRS.

Two episodes of outstanding importance occurred during Richard Bell's tenure of office at the ASRS. The first was the Taff Vale dispute in 1900 , when, because of an unofficial strike among railway workers, the company sued the union and obtained £23,000 damages; this led to a change in trade union law.

The second was the famous Osborne case, when a branch secretary of the union queried the validity of its rules regarding the political levy. The case was finally taken to the House of Lords and decided against the union. The consequence was the 1913 Act , which permitted unions to levy a political toll on their members.

Bell will no doubt chiefly be remembered for his resistance to the efforts of those who wished to establish an autonomous Labour Party. In 1900 he was elected Lib-Lab M.P. for Derby boroughs, the first railway worker to enter Parliament .

He was one of the four trade union members of the joint committee which drew up the draft constitution of the Labour Representation Committee (L.R.C. ).

When that committee was established in 1901 he became its first treasurer , and its chairman in 1902-3 . Nevertheless, at the Newcastle conference in 1903 he opposed the adoption of a redrafted constitution which sought to create a new self-governing Labour Party .

Bell was also a supporter and for a time vice chairman of the National Democratic League, a curious hybrid political grouping which for some years was something of a rival to the independent Labour Party, working closely with W.C. Steadman in opposition to the ILP

In 1904 Richard Bell became president of the Trade U

nion Congress .

At the 1906 General election Bell was again backed by the ASRS and Derby Trades Council but not the LRC, he was re-elected as a ‘

Lib.-Lab along with Liberal Sir Thomas roe in Derby double member constituency.

Meanwhile, back at the ASRS Union, the all-grades agitation of 1907 led Bell to speak out against growing militancy of the union members, while his position was supported by the right wing press it w

as increasingly at odds with the ASRS Executive, ASRS MP's Walter Hudson (Newcastle), George Wardle (Stockport) and Derby Trades Council.

As a result of the recriminations about his stance on the strike and his alleged lack of commitment to the Derby consistency, Bell resigned his seat and his trade union office in 1910 .

Bells successor as Labour MP for Derby was fellow Welshman and ASRS official Jimmy Thomas, later General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen (who would later end his career in disgrace as a member of the National Coalition government)

He then undertook an administrative post at the

Board of Trade in connection with the establishment of labour exchanges under the unemployment section of the National Insurance Act . This was later transferred to the Ministry of Labour . In 1907 he had been made a J.P. for the county of Middlesex . Bell was elected as a member of Southgate Urban District Council in 1922 and was Chairman 18

25-1926, retiring in 1929.

Richard Bell died at his home 19 Derwent Ro

ad, Palmers Green on May Day (1st May) 1930.

The funeral took place 5th May 1930 at Southgate Cemetery where John Burns and G. N. Barnes gave the graveside tributes.

NOTE

ASRS railway workers union sponsored MP's

G. J. Wardle MP (Stockport) and W. Hudson MP (Newcastle)

Kier Hardie - Uxbridge UDC Elections 1912

West London Independent Labour Party (ILP)
Rally Uxbridge Town Hall 22 March 1912

Speaker Kier Hardie MP leader of the Labour Party.
Chairman Councillor L.W. Spencer (Uxbridge Labour Party)

supported by Labour council candidates for Uxbridge
Mr Ernest Alford Cave (Head Master - St Andrews Boys High School) , James Cochrane (Electrician - 20 Belmont Road), William Arthur Herbert (Carpenter & Joiner - 11 Tachbrook Road), Robert Weller Hudson (Commercial Clerk - Rockingham Road) , Frederick Charles Rolfe (Tanner - 5 & 6 Cross Street), Thomas Rowley (Friendly Society Manager - 21 Tachbrook Road) , Frederick James Youens (Painter - 12 Lawn Road).

Labour standing on a platform of council housing, allotments, employment rights, bathing, sanitation, and free library

"Labour's practical programme for improvements and reform"

Despite threats of violence from Labour's opponents ( Local Tories had been smashing up suffragette meetings locally) the meeting went ahead However, Kier Hardie was unable to attend due to urgent Parliamentary business.

Uxbridge ILP meeting at Rockingham Hall

L. W Spencer elected to Uxbridge UDC in 1910 with 345 votes

"They (Labour) were nothing like so well organised as their opponents on the polling day

The Labour men were only assisted by two side cars attached to motor cycles



Rival Forces at Uxbridge Pump March 1912

Saturday XX March 1912 must be recorded as a day of days in the history of local politics writes "One who as there" Never has such scenes been witnessed at the pump, never has pandemonium reigned as strongly, never has feeling run so high, and never have the inhabitants of Windsor Street heard such uproar. The cause of it all was simple. For the first time in the town's history Labour was making a determined effort to be strongly represented on Uxbridge Urban district council and the members of Uxbridge Constitutional (Conservative) Club making a determined effort to keep them out

Both sides had been working hard all the previous week, and both had decided to hold a final rally at the Pump on Saturday. The great day came, and the labour party got possession first, in fact they had been "holding the fort" from thee o'clock. from an early hour in the evening, their candidates addressed an immense crowd, and every thing went along smoothly until shortly after eight O'clock. then the trouble began. a large van came round the corner at a run, to serve as a platform for an Anti-Socialist speaker and pulled up a few yards from where the Labour men had their pitch. Then there was an uproar.. The Labour supporters in a body attacked the van but quickly Councillor L.W. Spencer mounted his rostrum and with the light of indignation in his eyes fast the vast crowd "Friends and comrades, "Shouted he "Will you hear me!"
"Yes" roared back the crowd.
"Then" rejoined Mr Spencer amidst absolute silence "I wish to say just this; These people have come here to try to upset our meeting (cheers and counter cheers) I did all I possibly could to come to an amicable arrangement with them, and have here the correspondence with Mr Lovibond, but they would not have any of it. Our meeting was arranged weeks ago and we claim the right to have this meeting, and here we are going to stop (Loud Cheers), these brief remarks aroused the indignation of the Labour supporters. "Out with the van" shouted one, and a party of stalwarts made an ugly rush towards the vehicle and quickly started pushing it up the street. Mr D. H. Grimsdale clambered on to it. and was met with a storm of hissing and booing such as never greeted him before, His appearance seemed to rouse the crowd to further action, so that another rush was made and the vehicle went up on two wheels. Mr Grimsdale somewhat ungracefully but safely scrambled out in the nick of time and by climbing on to the church rails was soon safe,
Then the police thought it time to step in and it was well that they did so, or the results might have been serious. They advised that the offending van should be removed and the Conservatives amidst the ironical cheers of their opponents slowly dragged the vehicle away and the Labour men cheered and cheered again.
They had won the first round and for a time held undisputed possession ion of the field, But not for long, The Conservatives returned with a "rostrum" which they pitched some little distance away and then the row recommenced.
Mr Grimesdale essayed to speak but his voice was drowned by the hissing and booing of the crowd, which had swelled considerably. He gave up the attempt and called upon Mr Temple of the Anti-Socialist Union. Shortly before ten Mr Grimesdale called for the National Anthem and the anti-Socialist meeting closed. The Labour Party continued and their candidates having spoken the meeting closed after six hours

It was a never to forgotten night

Buckinghamshire Advertiser March 1912


Ernest Alfrod Cave Election statement

My message is - "To Dread Nought, but to make War, not indeed on the Germans, but on social germs - the germs of disease, destitution, and despair, and therefore, directly or indirectly, to provide our workers with more and better cottages, let at lower rates; with a higher wage and more leisure; with open spaces and playing fields, baths, gardens, reading rooms and a free library; to rouse our religious bodies to take closer share in the religious work; to show That a "little Englander" is a "Great Imperialist" and that under rated sites left to "ripen" means means under rated "souls" left to rot; and finally to ask the people of Uxbridge to retain this programme as evidence of the sincerity of Uxbridge Labour Party - Ernest Cave - Uxbridge Labour Party March 1912


NOTE
Councillor L.W. Spencer
Labour Councillor L.W, "Leonard" Spencer (Uxbridge ILP Secretary)would lose his life in the Great War, shot through the head by a German snipper on the 1st September 1915, he is buried at Longuenesse St Omer, France.

Hayes Urban District Council Labour Candidates 1912

John William Gordon "Trevose" Cromwell Road (Insurance Agent)
Percy Vere Osbourne Langton 18 Angel Lane, Hayes End (Clerk) (Elected)
Frederick Victor Mason 6 Silverdale Road (Machinist)

also:
Alfred James Kirkby 15 South View, Blyth Road, Hayes - (Fitter & Turner) nominated by Henry Palmer and Frederick James Stiff (so must have been Labour) withdrew.

Merthyr ILP - Kier Hardie MP 1906

Kier Hardie and "Justice" 1909

"Justice" and "The Times."
House of Commons
Debate 05 August 1909







§ Mr. J. CULLINAN (for Mr. J. Dillon)

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his attention had been called to a letter recently published in "The Times" newspaper in which the murder of Sir Curzon Wyllie was defended and political assassination advocated; and why the police seized the newspaper called "Justice" on Sunday, 25th July 1909, and took no action against "The Times" for the publication alluded to above?

§ Mr. H. GLADSTONE

The police seized "Justice" because it contained a letter signed "Wat Tyler," which was a clear incitement to violence, and likely to provoke a disturbance of the peace. Copies of two posters of the same character and issued from the same quarter were also seized. The police acted rightly, and if it is thought otherwise proceedings can be taken against them. I cannot discuss the grounds upon which it is decided that action is to be taken or not to be taken in 1976 such cases; but I may point out, first, that the letter referred to was published in "The Times" with no criminal intent, but with the view of reprobating the seditious matter which it contained; and, secondly, that no copies of that letter, so far as I am aware, were distributed in such a manner as to be likely to incite to crime, or to provoke breaches of the peace, and therefore to call for action on the part of the police.

Mr. T. F. RICHARDS

Does the right hon. Gentleman say that "Justice" excites to crime and violence, while the letter in "The Times ' docs not excite?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

I have definitely stated that the copies of "Justice" seized by the police contained matter which was a direct incitement to violence and crime.

§ Mr. J. CULLINAN

Are the police to be the sole judges as to whether it is an incitement to violence and crime or are they to be judges of motive, because the right hon. Gentleman has referred to criminal intent?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

I take full responsibility for the action of the police.

§ Mr. KEIR HARDIE

Were the police authorised by the Home Secretary to make the seizure?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

The police are always authorised to take action when they see anything done calculated to incite to violence and to a breach of the peace. They have my standing sanction to such action.

§ Mr. REES

May I ask whether the editorial columns of "The Times" did not express the utmost reprobation of the principles expressed in the letter published, and whether on that account it can be suggested that "The Times" in any way favoured this man and his propaganda by publishing the letter?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

I have already alluded to that in the answer.

NOTE

Justice was the newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation