90 Shepherd Lancashire Miner in Walthamstow
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A LANCAshiRE MinER in WALTHAMSTOW SAM WOOds And THE BY-ELECTION OF 1897 The Walthamstow by-election of 3 February 1897 was the most remarkable result of over seventy parliamentary contests during the 1895–1900 parliament. Sam Woods, a white-haired miner in his early fifties, unexpectedly became the first Liberal- Labour Member for Walthamstow. The Liberal press hailed the result as ‘the most astonishing political transformation of recent times’.1 However, The Times declared: ‘We had no notion that the crude, violent and round midnight on 3 Feb- Previous general election results: subversive Radicalism ruary 1897 the result of the 1892 of Mr Woods would Aparliamentary election for E. W. Byrne (Con) 6,115 the Walthamstow (South Western W. B. Whittingham (Lib) 4,965 find acceptance even Division of Essex) constituency was Con majority 1,150 announced at the old town hall in 1895 in a working-class Orford Road. The dramatic elec- E. W. Byrne (Con) 6,876 2 tion result was: A. H. Pollen (Lib) 4,523 constituency’. John Con majority 2,353 Shepherd tells the Sam Woods (Liberal-Labour) 6,518 Thomas Dewar (Cons.) 6,239 From 1886 to 1895 Waltham- story. Lib-Lab majority 279 stow returned Tory MPs, and the 24 Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 A LANCAshiRE MinER in WALTHAMSTOW SAM WOOds And THE BY-ELECTION OF 1897 Liberal Party saw the constituency Walthamstow contained the two trade, with many skilled workers, as a hopeless cause. The first work- largest electorates in the country. engaged mainly in house construc- man to contest Walthamstow, Sam The South-Western Division with tion. Of the individual occupations Woods, was a former hewer from 19,846 adult male voters out of a represented in the local commu- Wigan and a complete stranger who total population of around 150,000 nity, the most numerous were had been adopted shortly before was a vast constituency which carpenters and joiners, printers, polling day. In the late nineteenth comprised Walthamstow, Ley- clerks and domestic servants. Out- century miners’ unions were the ton, Leytonstone, Harrow Green side their homes, women worked pioneers of labour representation, and Woodford and stretched from mainly in domestic service, dress- but their candidates stood only in Tottenham in the west to Wan- making and the manufacture of mining constituencies. stead in the east, and Chingford in books, paper and stationery. There In 1897 Sam Woods’ campaign the north to Clapton in the south. were over 350 women schoolteach- manager, Herbert Samuel, wrote to Before 1850 there were fewer than ers and more than 250 female com- the former Prime Minister and Lib- 5,000 inhabitants in the rural parish mercial clerks in the town. By the eral leader William Gladstone for of Walthamstow, but by 1883 the turn of the century, at least seven- support. Samuel stressed ‘the great socialist writer, designer and crafts- teen trade unions had been estab- importance at the present moment man William Morris described lished in the district. While similar of a hearty alliance between the Walthamstow, his birthplace, as urban development took place party and the more sober section of ‘a suburban village on the edge of in nearby Leyton, the villadom Labour politicians’,3 a well-directed Epping Forest and once a pleas- of Woodford, with four times as reference to the long-established ant place enough, but now terribly many domestic servants per head links in Victorian politics between cocknified and choked up by the of population as Walthamstow, the Gladstonian Liberal Party and jerrybuilder’.5 retained its middle-class character.7 prominent trade union and labour In Walthamstow during 1871–1891 From 1886 to 1895 the Waltham- leaders. In this way, before the the population expanded dramati- stow Liberal Party found great advent of the modern Labour Party, cally from 11,092 to 95,131. The difficulties in persuading wealthy Sam Woods joined the small group estate developers and the Great Liberals to contest the constitu- of working-class MPs known as Eastern Railway Company created ency. To obtain help, Walthamstow ‘Lib-Labs’ who represented labour the new, predominantly working- Liberals approached party head- interests but were Liberals in class, suburb. The extension of the quarters in London, but with little politics. railway to Walthamstow in 1870 success. Pressed by his local party, Nearly fifty years later, Her- and the G.E.R. Company’s promo- Courtenay Warner told Herbert bert (then Viscount) Samuel tion of workmen’s tickets and half Gladstone: ‘I am afraid this division recalled that ‘Woods knew as lit- fares in 1872 and 1885 attracted the is a forlorn hope. I shall do what I tle of Walthamstow as Waltham- skilled artisans and clerks who set- can for the candidate they choose stow knew of coalmines’.4 How tled in the town with their families, though I should not like to stand Sam Woods became the Member but commuted to London. Many myself’.8 for Walthamstow provides a fas- worked in the City, the financial Prospective Liberal candidates cinating insight into the politics centre of the world at this time.6 were not encouraged by the bitter and society of the town during its The major estate developer in internal party feuding surround- important period of urban develop- Walthamstow was Thomas Cour- ing the political activities of J. J. ment in the late nineteenth century. tenay Theydon Warner, one of the McSheedy, an Irish Radical and largest landowners in the locality, schoolmaster, who had first earned whose Warner Estate Company his reputation as the stormy petrel The Walthamstow built large parts of the town, start- of Walthamstow in his campaign constituency ing in the 1880s in the St James Left: Sam Woods to reform the Walthamstow Paro- In 1897 the Essex county con- Street district. The most impor- (10 May 1846 – 23 chial Charities.9 McSheedy became stituencies of Romford and tant industry was the building November 1915) the leader of the local Radical and Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 25 A LANCAshiRE MinER in WALTHAMSTOW: SAM WOOds And THE BY-ELECTION OF 1897 Progressive Association, an alliance union and labour politics in Lanca- electoral organisation. He quickly of working men and small-scale shire, becoming the respected local prepared a short biography of Sam businessmen, which gained increas- miners’ agent at Ashton-in-Maker- Woods for distribution in the con- ing influence within the local Lib- field, and then the first president of stituency.16 Woods had entered the eral Party. Elected to the new urban the Lancashire Miners Federation mine at the age of seven and had district council with five other Rad- and vice-president of the Miners worked at every mining occupa- icals in 1894, McSheedy’s activities Federation of Great Britain. From tion for twenty years. Largely self- were publicised in his own news- 1892 to 1895 Woods was the MP educated, he had gained a first-class paper, the Walthamstow Reporter. for the Ince Division of Lancashire certificate in mining management. McSheedyism aroused demonstra- and had held his part-time TUC A Baptist convert, he had been a tions of great passion and hostility. post since 1894. In politics, he was student for the ministry, but was But the Progressives enjoyed strong a loyal Gladstonian Liberal, as the unable to take up his place. Instead, support in the new working-class Liberal Chief Whip had informed Woods’ direct experience of the areas, such as St James Street and Gladstone: hazardous conditions of mining life High Street wards; and the chang- formed the basis of his long trade ing social composition of the con- Mr Woods is the agent for the union and political career. In terms stituency was an important factor in Lancashire Miners Association of background, social position and the by-election of 1897. and has the support of the Lib- political views, the two candidates eral Party in the division. He has made a striking contrast. Woods found it necessary to declare on was a labour leader of humble ori- The by-election of 1897 Home Rule and I have a written gins, deep religious convictions The vacancy at Walthamstow was assurance that on all questions and strong temperance beliefs. caused by the appointment of the other than those specifically The wealthy Thomas (later Baron) Tory MP, E. W. Byrne, QC, to the affecting labour he will support Dewar was twenty years younger, Bench of the Chancery Division of the Liberal Party’.13 owned a string of thoroughbred the High Court of Justice. The local racehorses (including the Derby Conservative Association soon At this time many local Lib- favourite) and his own Rocket chose Thomas Dewar, a wealthy eral associations, dominated by coach. On the ‘Drink v Temper- director of Dewar’s Whisky, as middle-class elites, were hos- ance’ issue, the Director of Dewar’s their candidate; whereas the Liberal tile to working-class candidates. Whisky had publicly denounced Party in Walthamstow received the The Walthamstow Liberal Party prohibition systems and in the elec- demoralising reply from London included amongst its leadership tion enjoyed the support of his busi- that the party managers had com- two local magnates, Edward North ness rivals. mitted their resources instead to Buxton, who had been the local During his campaign, Woods another by-election in neighbour- MP briefly in 1885 and was a direc- advocated a broad Lib-Lab pro- ing Romford.10 There the Conserv- tor of the East London brewers, gramme. He told the electors: atives had held the seat for eleven Truman Hanbury and Buxton, years. In Walthamstow, Arnold and Thomas Courtenay They- I strongly favour such demo- Hills, the millionaire owner of the don Warner MP.