Biography Pamela Horn tells the story of one of the first working men to be elected to Parliament, Joseph Arch (1826–1919) TheThe farmfarm workers’workers’ championchampion
oseph Arch (–) was both a pioneering demanding a reduction in the length of their Jagricultural trade union leader and one of the first working day. A new Trade Union Act passed in working men to be elected to Parliament, when he , which explicitly legalised registered unions served as Liberal MP for North-West Norfolk from and provided security for their funds, also gave to and again from until his retire- added impetus to the labour movement. Yet, de- ment from political life in . spite sporadic attempts at organisation among Arch was born on November , in the farm workers in Herefordshire, Leicestershire and south Warwickshire village of Barford. He was the a few other areas, the agricultural labourers – the fourth child and only surviving son of John Arch, a largest single sector of the work force – seemed local farm worker, and his redoubtable wife, unable to combine effectively. In April the Hannah. Hannah was ten years older than her hus- Illustrated London News commented dismissively band and this was her second marriage, her first hus- that they had been ‘hitherto looked upon as the band having died in . It was from his mother lowermost stratum of the industrial classes’. that Arch inherited his early interest in religious It was in these circumstances that early in Febru- nonconformity and his independent attitude. He ary some local labourers went to Arch’s Barford later claimed she was the most important influence home to ask him to hold a meeting in nearby on his life. Wellesbourne to highlight their grievances and to After briefly attending the village school be- press for the formation of a trade union for land tween the ages of six and nine, Arch began work as workers. The vigour and self-confidence of Arch’s a bird scarer in the mid-s. Other land work speech on that occasion, demanding higher pay and followed and by the s he had become a prize- a reduction in the length of the working day, won winning hedger and ditcher, taking contract jobs as the support of those present and led to the holding far afield as Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and of many meetings elsewhere. Night after night Arch Wales. As early as the s he had become a tramped to neighbouring villages addressing enthu- Primitive Methodist local preacher, thereby serving siastic audiences. Soon the message was taken up in an apprenticeship in the difficult art of public other parts of the country, aided by the support of a speaking. In the middle of that decade he spent sympathetic newspaper proprietor, J. E. Matthew precious pennies earned running errands and do- Vincent. He not only publicised the movement in ing odd jobs on the purchase of newspapers, so that his Royal Leamington Chronicle but thereby alerted he could read the speeches of William Gladstone the national press to the agitation. Later in the year and John Bright. From these he formed his life- he established the Labourers’ Union Chronicle, to act as long political opinions. a link for members throughout the country. It con- By the early s Arch’s strong and deter- tinued publication, with some changes in name, un- mined character was recognised by his fellow land til . workers, at a time when pressure was growing for Years later the novelist Thomas Hardy paid trib- an improvement in their living conditions. These ute to Arch’s skill as a leader and effective public were years of rising food prices and of trade union speaker. Hardy listened to him in Dorset, and agitation among many workers, including those in wrote that: the building and engineering industries who were
10 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 Nobody who saw and heard Mr. emigration and attempts at mediation, Some Liberal leaders, rather patronis- Arch in his early tours through in the end the lock-out was a de- ingly, saw him as a valuable instrument Dorsetshire will ever forget him and feat for the Union. for mobilising the newly-enfranchised the influence his presence exercised This led not only to disillusion rural voters in favour of their party in over the crowds he drew … The pic- within the membership but to splits the vital county constituencies. Under ture he drew of a comfortable cottage and divisions among the leaders, some the Union’s aegis, for example, in the life as it should be was so cosy, so well of whom resented Arch’s autocratic weeks leading up to the election, mock within the grasp of his listeners’ im- style of leadership. They favoured a ballots were held to instruct the labour- agination, that an old labourer in the federal structure with more autonomy ers in the basic mechanics of voting. crowd held up a coin between his for individual union districts, rather Significantly, too, Chamberlain and finger and thumb exclaiming, ‘Here’s than the centralised approach favoured Collings promoted a so-called ‘unau- zixpence towards that, please God!’ by Arch. In the long run most of these thorised’ political programme designed ‘Towards what?’ said a bystander. regional bodies faded away. Only the to appeal to rural workers, a key ele- ‘Faith, I don’t know that I can spak Kent and Sussex Union carried on ment of this being land reform to give the name o’t, but I know ‘tis a good into the s, placing particular em- the labourer ‘a stake in the soil’. It was thing.’ phasis on emigration to solve labour caricatured by opponents under the disputes. Overall, however, these slogan of ‘three acres and a cow’, but it Arch’s efforts and the activities of other, events seriously weakened the Na- proved popular with many labourers. less prominent, leaders, led in late tional Union and its membership fell The success of these joint efforts was March to the formation of the from the , it achieved in to such that for the only time in their his- National Agricultural Labourers’ Un- , a year later. The onset of agri- tory the Conservatives did worse in ru- ion, with himself as president. The ini- cultural depression, as cheap food im- ral constituencies than in urban areas. It tiative won the enthusiastic backing of ports combined with bad harvests in was doubtless in recognition of Arch’s a number of sympathetic outsiders, es- Britain undermined the prosperity of contribution to this that the National pecially Liberal Party members from most agriculturists, further stiffened Liberal Club organised a banquet in his Birmingham. They included Jesse employers’ resistance to the Union and honour in January . Joseph Cham- Collings, a close political ally and friend its president. Cash wages on the land berlain presided. of Joseph Chamberlain. Within a year fell from the peak achieved in – Arch’s electoral triumph proved membership had reached about ,, , although living standards were still short-lived. When the Liberal Govern- concentrated particularly in the mid- rising because of the cheaper food and ment split over the issue of Home land counties and in East Anglia. manufactured goods now coming on Rule for Ireland, he lost his seat at the The fledgling movement soon en- the market. general election. This was despite countered bitter opposition from farm- Arch himself, meanwhile, continued a letter from William Gladstone urging ers and landowners, not only to its de- to spearhead the struggle to maintain voters in the constituency to continue mands for higher pay but over the fun- and improve workers’ employment to support him. The next few years damental issue of workers’ right to conditions. In the political sphere he were ones of considerable difficulty. combine. Lock-outs and strikes fol- pressed for the vote to be given to rural The Union was very weak, with lowed, culminating in a major dispute householders, to match rights given to membership standing at just over early in , affecting , – , male householders in towns in . , by the end of . In addition unionists, mainly in East Anglia, one of He also gave unstinting support to his there were allegations of corruption the Union’s strongholds. Arch was at hero, William Gladstone, and to the from opponents within the move- the forefront of the resistance to the Liberal Party. That included an en- ment, as well as hostility to his au- employers, addressing meetings in the dorsement of Gladstone’s powerful thoritarian leadership. As regards the affected areas and also undertaking campaign against Turkish atrocities in former charge, surviving accounts fund-raising tours to the North of Eng- Bulgaria in –. Arch also took up make clear that there was no financial land to win support from urban trade the cause of international peace, attend- malpractice. The latter complaint had unionists and others. ing a Workmen’s Peace Association more validity in that he often failed to Arch realised that if the bargaining conference in Paris during . He listen to the views of critics or to make position of the workers vis-à-vis the adopted this pacifist stance despite the concessions to them. farmers was to be strengthened they fact that his eldest son, John, was a ser- At the end of the decade two events must encourage some members to geant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. revived Arch’s fortunes. The first was his emigrate. At the same time there was a In the franchise was finally ex- election to Warwickshire County growing demand for labour in New tended to country householders. The Council in . The second was an Zealand, Australia and Canada. Indeed, next year, despite stiff opposition from upsurge in trade unionism among in Arch had directly involved the Conservative candidate, Lord many unskilled or poorly-paid workers himself in the emigration movement Henry Bentinck, Arch was elected Lib- as a result of the successful London by visiting Canada in order to investi- eral MP for North-West Norfolk. dock strike of August and an gate conditions for himself. Yet, despite
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 11 found the late hours and the rituals and routine of the Commons uncongenial, especially as he was now well into his sixties. There is no evidence that Liberal Party leaders tried to keep him in his place or discouraged him from speak- ing in the Chamber. Indeed in – he was asked to serve on the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor. One of his fellow Commissioners was the Prince of Wales and Arch was proud of this link and of the fact that Sandring- ham lay within his constituency. In his autobiography was published, edited by the Countess of Warwick, who in a new-found enthusiasm for left-wing politics began to take an in- terest in the old trade unionist who lived so near to Warwick Castle, and whose grandparents and mother had been Castle servants. Arch was married twice. His first wife, Mary Ann, was a domestic servant and the daughter of Isaac Mills, a car- penter from Wellesbourne Mountford. The marriage took place on February , and the couple returned to live in the cottage where Arch had been born. It had been purchased by his maternal grandfather and it was to be his home for the rest of his long life. The Arches had seven children, four boys and three girls, of whom only the youngest girl, Elizabeth, failed to reach adulthood. Mrs Arch was a good mother and an ef- ficient manager of the household but she played little part in her husband’s trade union and political career. Some- what unfairly he blamed her for her accompanying brief general improve- around , by late , of whom limited education, rather than blaming ment in trade and employment pros- over , had been recruited in Nor- the society in which she had grown up, pects. This movement, usually labelled folk. But the revival quickly faded and declaring she ‘was not the woman my ‘new unionism’, was largely socialist- the end came in October when the mother was … She … was no compan- led, however, and Arch had little sympa- Union was finally dissolved. Its demise ion in my aspirations’. Nevertheless, if thy with such political views or with placed Arch in financial difficulty and she had no intellectual ambitions of her those promoting them. He remained shortly before the dissolution Liberal own, she certainly encouraged him to committed to old-style Lib-Lab poli- Party friends organised a fund to provide add to his knowledge and his stock of cies, like many other established union him with an annuity. About £, was books, and she gave solid unobtrusive leaders. He was wary of urban union- collected, and an annuity of £ pur- support to him in his later parliamen- ists, fearing they wanted to influence chased; among the contributors was the tary career. Mary Ann died after a long ‘his’ organisation for their own ends. former Liberal Prime Minister, Lord illness on March , aged . Nevertheless, the revival came at an Rosebery. On December , Arch mar- opportune time for him, and in the gen- Arch remained an MP until , ried again, his bride being Miriam eral election of he was returned when he retired to his cottage at Blomfield, the daughter of a Norfolk once more as MP for North-West Nor- Barford. He added little to his reputa- sadler, about fifteen years his junior. She folk. Membership of the National tion during this second parliamentary had been his housekeeper for some Union, too, had risen again, reaching stint, rarely contributing to debates. He time before his wedding.
12 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 After his retirement from Parlia- ills, he achieved a clear improvement in Further reading: ment, Arch played little part in politics, their conditions. If this proved less sweep- although he did apparently make an ing and less permanent that he desired, Joseph Arch, The Story of His Life Told by unsuccessful attempt to set up a small- nonetheless it meant they were never Himself, edited by the Countess of scale co-operative society. Neither did again dismissed as mere ‘clodhoppers’ or Warwick (London, 1898). This has he take any further role in agricultural ‘Johnny Raws’ as they had been before been reissued over the years, trade unionism, even when a new or- his advent and that of the ‘Revolt of including in 1986, when it appeared as ganisation was set up in Norfolk in the Field’ which he led. Joseph Arch, From Ploughtail to . As he sadly commented to one of Parliament (London: Cresset Library the leaders who visited him in , his Pamela Horn lectured at Oxford Polytechnic edn., 1986) work was ‘all done now’. He was simply (now Oxford Brookes University) in eco- Alan Armstrong, Farmworkers. A Social too old. Even his support for Primitive nomic and social history between and and Economic History 1770–1980 Methodism had faded away. . She has since been a freelance lecturer. (London, 1988) Yet, when he died on February She has also written a number of books on , his important contribution to the British social history from the eighteenth to Rollo Arnold, The Farthest Promised emancipation of farm workers was rec- the twentieth centuries, including a biogra- Land (Victoria University Press with ognised. His funeral service was con- phy of Joseph Arch in . Her most recent Price Milburn, Wellington, New ducted at Barford by the Bishop of books are Pleasures and Pastimes in Vic- Zealand, 1981) Coventry, and a message from David torian Britain () and Life Below Lloyd George, then Prime Minister, Stairs in the th Century (). George R. Boyer and Timothy J. Hatton, was read at the graveside by the Liberal ‘Did Joseph Arch raise agricultural candidate for the Rugby constituency. 1The Kent and Sussex Union was led by Alfred wages?: Rural trade unions and the Simmons, editor of the radical Kent Messenger The press, too, paid tribute. The Bir- labour market in late nineteenth- and Maidstone Telegraph. It was founded as a di- century England’, Economic History mingham Daily Post in a ‘Special rect result of news of Arch’s movement in War- Review, 2nd series, 47 (1994), pp. Memoir’ declared that as a union activ- wickshire. It continued to be a strong union dur- ing the 1880s, changing its name to become the 310–34. ist ‘he was a more commanding figure London and Southern Counties Labour League than any industrial agitator of recent and entering the next decade as one of the coun- Reg Groves, Sharpen the Sickle! The times’. The Manchester Guardian of try’s nine major unions. It was dissolved in 1895 History of the Farm Workers’ Union with a membership of 13,000 but it was always February called him ‘one of the sympathetic to urban unionists in a way that Arch (London, 1949) most remarkable leaders that the Eng- never was. See Rollo Arnold, ‘The “Revolt of the lish village labourers ever produced’. Field” in Kent 1872–1879’ in Past and Present, Pamela Horn, Joseph Arch (1826–1919). At a time when class divisions were No. 64 (1974), 71, 75 and 92–93 The Farm Workers’ Leader (Kineton, 2 Arch unsuccessfully contested the Wilton con- 1971) strong and agricultural workers were de- stituency as a Liberal candidate in 1880. During spised and disregarded, Joseph Arch gave the late 1870s he addressed many Liberal Party them a sense of hope and self-confidence. meetings as well as Union gatherings. Pamela Alun Howkins, Poor Labouring Men. Horn, Joseph Arch (1826–1919). The Farm Rural Radicalism in Norfolk 1870– His leadership embodied that spirit of so- Workers’ Leader (Kineton, 1971) pp. 122–126 1923 (London, 1985) cial protest and, by his focus on workers’ and 152–156.
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Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 13