William Mainwaring
Encyclopedia
William Henry Mainwaring (1884 – 18 May 1971) was a British
coal miner, lecturer and trade unionist, who became a long-serving Labour Party
Member of Parliament
. Both as a trade unionist and a politician he struggled, largely successfully to counter Communist influence. He was said to have spoken "with passion and fire on behalf of his fellow miners".
and went to local schools, leaving to work as miner
in the South Wales coalfield
. He was a member of the South Wales Miners' Federation
, and through their sponsorship was able to continue his education at the Central Labour College
in London
where he studied economics.
, but most of the students were South Wales miners; opponents suspected the college was "class teaching for revolutionary aims".
. Mainwaring polled 49,617 against Cook's 50,123 votes. Cook went on to win the post and vacated his previous post as miners' agent for the Rhondda
district; Mainwaring was appointed to succeed him. He was one of two agents for the district, and with his fellow agent Alderman David Lewis, Mainwaring had to fight the attempts by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain
to gain influence. In 1928, under Communist influence, the lodges of the Rhondda Miners' Federation called for a membership ballot to elect their representative on the South Wales Miners' Federation executive. Mainwaring and Lewis offered their resignations but the district committee refused to accept them.
in Rhondda
, and nearly half of the men did not go in to work.
Mainwaring did get the South Wales nomination for the secretaryship of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1932, after the death of A. J. Cook. A preferential voting system was used, and Mainwaring came in third place on first preference votes, being eliminated from the voting.
(MP) for Rhondda East
, in early 1933 left a vacancy for a Labour candidate in which the influence of the miners was predominant. Mainwaring's name was immediately mentioned as a possible candidate, with rivals including Alderman David Lewis, Mrs Watts-Morgan (the widow of the former MP), and some local party figures. Mainwaring was selected, and faced opposition from Arthur Horner
of the Communist Party and William Thomas, a local Liberal
, in the byelection.
Mainwaring received a letter of support from Labour Party leader George Lansbury
, and an appeal from the President, Vice-President and General Secretary of the South Wales Miners' Federation was made for all miners and their families to vote for him. The Labour Party had won easily in a straight fight with Arthur Horner at the previous election, but the decision of the Liberal Party to fight an energetic campaign (the Liberal candidate was allied with David Lloyd George
and opposed to the National Government) was thought to have given the party a scare because Labour had benefited from Liberal votes in 1931. Mainwaring predicted that he would get between 20,000 and 22,000 votes. In the event, Mainwaring won with 14,127 votes, with Horner second having increased his vote compared with 1931.
to examine the circumstances of the Bedwas
colliery dispute where miners and their families had been imprisoned for breaches of the peace. He moved the rejection of the government's Coal Mines Bill in 1934, arguing that legislation dealing with coal mines was futile while the miners were in private ownership, and had evaded previous acts. He was also active on issues affecting the unemployed, where he consistently opposed attempts to reduce unemployment benefit; in 1935 he warned that agitation on the subject in South Wales would "spread like a flame throughout the country".
, pointing to the fact that some parts of holy scripture might be included within the description and declaring his certainty that his own possessions included enough to keep him in prison forever. He also moved a motion in 1936 that called for the government to be given full power to take action against profiteers in the event of war; this motion was agreed.
At the 1935 general election
, Mainwaring had to defend his seat against the Communist leader Harry Pollitt
. The Communists caused some amusement when they appealed to Labour to withdraw their candidate in order to stop splitting the working-class vote. Mainwaring succeeded in increasing his majority to 8,433.
and chose to try to make employers liable for injuries to workmen caused by the negligence of fellow workmen. When debated, a Conservative MP moved to reject the Bill, and the Government declared their opposition; the Bill was defeated by 146 to 85. In the next session, Mainwaring won again, this time in first place; he introduced the Workmen's Compensation Bill, which aimed to compensate more dependents of employees for injuries caused in the workplace. He was again met with a motion for rejection which was passed by only six votes (115 to 109).
went in a delegation to South Wales to unveil charity gifts, Mainwaring urged the people of South Wales to refuse to meet them and to "turn the insult back in their faces". He criticised the Government for failing to direct industry to the "Special areas" in South Wales suffering unemployment, pointing to statistics which showed they had been developed elsewhere.
on Rhodesia
in 1938. He went on a long visit to the territories in August 1938 to gather evidence, and then went on to visit the Rand in South Africa
. Mainwaring endorsed the report of the Royal Commission which called for a single Governor for the three territories of Northern Rhodesia
, Southern Rhodesia
and Nyasaland
.
in February 1943.
, Mainwaring faced a tough fight against Harry Pollitt who had kept up his connection with the Rhondda East constituency. Although the Liberal Party did not field a candidate, the Welsh nationalists of Plaid Cymru
did. Senior Labour figures including Professor Harold Laski
spoke for Mainwaring, who was put under pressure by the Communists' identifying with the working class while the Labour national campaign made a bid for middle-class votes.
, declaring that "no decent man or woman in Wales would support the amendment".
, Harry Pollitt made his third challenge to win the Rhondda East constituency. However, the outbreak of the Cold War
against Soviet Union
was thought to have alienated many in the coalfield. At the poll, Mainwaring obtained a majority of 22,182 and Pollitt barely retained his deposit. Mainwaring was a strong supporter of the Government policy of fighting the Korean War
, which he declared to be in the interests of workers of Britain.
. In 1955 he denounced the assumption that the English "were in some peculiar way wholly foreign and alien to Wales", and ridiculed basing a nation on "poets, preachers and musicians". He supported reform of the system of leasehold ownership to allow leasehold tenants to buy their freeholds
, attacking the sale of estates to financiers.
. He lived to the age of 87.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
coal miner, lecturer and trade unionist, who became a long-serving Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
. Both as a trade unionist and a politician he struggled, largely successfully to counter Communist influence. He was said to have spoken "with passion and fire on behalf of his fellow miners".
Mining
Mainwaring was born in SwanseaSwansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
and went to local schools, leaving to work as miner
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in the South Wales coalfield
South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich with coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys.-The coalfield area:...
. He was a member of the South Wales Miners' Federation
South Wales Miners' Federation
The South Wales Miners' Federation , nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for miners in South Wales.The union was founded on 24 October 1898, following the defeat of the South Wales miners' strike of 1898...
, and through their sponsorship was able to continue his education at the Central Labour College
Central Labour College
The Central Labour College was a British higher education institution supported by trade unions. It functioned from 1909 to 1929.The college was formed as a result of the Ruskin College strike of 1909. The Plebs' League, which had been formed around a core of Marxist students and former students of...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where he studied economics.
Labour College lecturer
After two years at the College, he returned to the coal face, but in 1919, Mainwaring was appointed as a Lecturer in Economics and Vice-Principal of the Central Labour College. This college, which renamed as The Labour College in 1920, was founded by the South Wales Miners' Federation and the National Union of RailwaymenNational Union of Railwaymen
The National Union of Railwaymen was a trade union of railway workers in the United Kingdom. It an industrial union founded in 1913 by the merger of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants , the United Pointsmen and Signalmen's Society and the General Railway Workers' Union .The NUR...
, but most of the students were South Wales miners; opponents suspected the college was "class teaching for revolutionary aims".
Miners' agent
Mainwaring ran for the South Wales nomination for a candidate to be Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain in 1924, but was narrowly defeated by A. J. CookA. J. Cook (trade unionist)
Arthur James Cook , known as A. J. Cook, was a British coal miner and trade union leader. He is remembered as one of the United Kingdom's best known miners’ leaders and a key component of the National Minority Movement around the General Strike of 1926.-Early years:A.J...
. Mainwaring polled 49,617 against Cook's 50,123 votes. Cook went on to win the post and vacated his previous post as miners' agent for the Rhondda
Rhondda
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley , is a former coal mining valley in Wales, formerly a local government district, consisting of 16 communities built around the River Rhondda. The valley is made up of two valleys, the larger Rhondda Fawr valley and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley...
district; Mainwaring was appointed to succeed him. He was one of two agents for the district, and with his fellow agent Alderman David Lewis, Mainwaring had to fight the attempts by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
to gain influence. In 1928, under Communist influence, the lodges of the Rhondda Miners' Federation called for a membership ballot to elect their representative on the South Wales Miners' Federation executive. Mainwaring and Lewis offered their resignations but the district committee refused to accept them.
Industrial dispute
After a new law allowed the miners' working day to increase to 7½ hours, the South Wales coalowners decided to reduce the wages of miners in November 1930. Mainwaring declared that the new terms of employment were "absolutely preposterous" and threatened to lead a strike. However, after lengthy negotiations, the South Wales miners agreed to work under the new terms "under protest". Communists picketed the Lewis Merthyr colliery at TrehafodTrehafod
Trehafod is a village in the Rhondda Valley between Porth and Pontypridd in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, although in administrative terms is split between the electoral division of Cymmer to the West and Rhondda to the East...
in Rhondda
Rhondda
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley , is a former coal mining valley in Wales, formerly a local government district, consisting of 16 communities built around the River Rhondda. The valley is made up of two valleys, the larger Rhondda Fawr valley and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley...
, and nearly half of the men did not go in to work.
Mainwaring did get the South Wales nomination for the secretaryship of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1932, after the death of A. J. Cook. A preferential voting system was used, and Mainwaring came in third place on first preference votes, being eliminated from the voting.
Rhondda East byelection
The death of Lieutenant-Colonel David Watts-Morgan, the Labour Member of ParliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Rhondda East
Rhondda East (UK Parliament constituency)
Rhondda East was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons to the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 1974...
, in early 1933 left a vacancy for a Labour candidate in which the influence of the miners was predominant. Mainwaring's name was immediately mentioned as a possible candidate, with rivals including Alderman David Lewis, Mrs Watts-Morgan (the widow of the former MP), and some local party figures. Mainwaring was selected, and faced opposition from Arthur Horner
Arthur Horner (politician)
Arthur Lewis Horner was a Welsh trade union leader and communist politician. During his periods of office as President of the South Wales Miners Federation from 1936, and as General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1946, he became one of the most prominent and influential...
of the Communist Party and William Thomas, a local Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, in the byelection.
Mainwaring received a letter of support from Labour Party leader George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....
, and an appeal from the President, Vice-President and General Secretary of the South Wales Miners' Federation was made for all miners and their families to vote for him. The Labour Party had won easily in a straight fight with Arthur Horner at the previous election, but the decision of the Liberal Party to fight an energetic campaign (the Liberal candidate was allied with David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
and opposed to the National Government) was thought to have given the party a scare because Labour had benefited from Liberal votes in 1931. Mainwaring predicted that he would get between 20,000 and 22,000 votes. In the event, Mainwaring won with 14,127 votes, with Horner second having increased his vote compared with 1931.
Parliament
In Parliament, Mainwaring concentrated on mining issues, calling in July 1933 for the Home SecretaryHome Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
to examine the circumstances of the Bedwas
Bedwas
Bedwas is a town two miles north-east of Caerphilly, south Wales, situated in the Caerphilly county borough, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire....
colliery dispute where miners and their families had been imprisoned for breaches of the peace. He moved the rejection of the government's Coal Mines Bill in 1934, arguing that legislation dealing with coal mines was futile while the miners were in private ownership, and had evaded previous acts. He was also active on issues affecting the unemployed, where he consistently opposed attempts to reduce unemployment benefit; in 1935 he warned that agitation on the subject in South Wales would "spread like a flame throughout the country".
Arms industry
During the 1930s he was a pacifist, criticising private armament firms for "trafficking in the blood of nations". Mainwaring also moved to delete a provision which would criminalise possession of documents which if distributed to the armed forces would incite disaffectionSedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
, pointing to the fact that some parts of holy scripture might be included within the description and declaring his certainty that his own possessions included enough to keep him in prison forever. He also moved a motion in 1936 that called for the government to be given full power to take action against profiteers in the event of war; this motion was agreed.
At the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
, Mainwaring had to defend his seat against the Communist leader Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :...
. The Communists caused some amusement when they appealed to Labour to withdraw their candidate in order to stop splitting the working-class vote. Mainwaring succeeded in increasing his majority to 8,433.
Employment law
In the new Parliament, Mainwaring won sixth place on the ballot to introduce a Private Member's BillPrivate Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
and chose to try to make employers liable for injuries to workmen caused by the negligence of fellow workmen. When debated, a Conservative MP moved to reject the Bill, and the Government declared their opposition; the Bill was defeated by 146 to 85. In the next session, Mainwaring won again, this time in first place; he introduced the Workmen's Compensation Bill, which aimed to compensate more dependents of employees for injuries caused in the workplace. He was again met with a motion for rejection which was passed by only six votes (115 to 109).
Unemployment
Mainwaring organised a march of the unemployed from South Wales to Westminster in November 1936, calling for work. When the Minister of LabourSecretary of State for Employment
The Secretary of State for Employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1995 it was merged with Secretary of State for Education to make the Secretary of State for Education and Employment...
went in a delegation to South Wales to unveil charity gifts, Mainwaring urged the people of South Wales to refuse to meet them and to "turn the insult back in their faces". He criticised the Government for failing to direct industry to the "Special areas" in South Wales suffering unemployment, pointing to statistics which showed they had been developed elsewhere.
Rhodesia
Outside his normal area, Mainwaring was named as a member of the Royal CommissionRoyal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
on Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
in 1938. He went on a long visit to the territories in August 1938 to gather evidence, and then went on to visit the Rand in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Mainwaring endorsed the report of the Royal Commission which called for a single Governor for the three territories of Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
, Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
and Nyasaland
Nyasaland
Nyasaland or the Nyasaland Protectorate, was a British protectorate located in Africa, which was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Since 1964, it has been known as Malawi....
.
Wartime
During the wartime coalition, Mainwaring was not always prepared to go along with the Labour Party's alliance with the Conservatives. He supported an amendment to criticise the poor position of old age and widow pensioners in 1942, along with 48 other Labour MPs but against the wishes of the front bench. He also voted to criticise the Government for delaying implementation of the Beveridge ReportWilliam Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCB was a British economist and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945.Lord...
in February 1943.
1945 general election
At the 1945 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
, Mainwaring faced a tough fight against Harry Pollitt who had kept up his connection with the Rhondda East constituency. Although the Liberal Party did not field a candidate, the Welsh nationalists of Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
did. Senior Labour figures including Professor Harold Laski
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski was a British Marxist, political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946, and was a professor at the LSE from 1926 to 1950....
spoke for Mainwaring, who was put under pressure by the Communists' identifying with the working class while the Labour national campaign made a bid for middle-class votes.
Civil aviation
Mainwaring succeeded in winning a very narrow victory by 972 votes. He was a notably less frequent speaker in the post-war Parliaments, but kept up his allegiance to the left. In 1946 he broke with the whip to support an amendment to the Civil Aviation Bill which required the directors of the new airline corporations to be full-time, and to oppose a Lords amendment affecting the Air Traffic Advisory Council. However Mainwaring opposed an amendment to exclude men from Wales and Monmouthshire from the liability to do National ServiceNational service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
, declaring that "no decent man or woman in Wales would support the amendment".
Korean war
At the 1950 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
, Harry Pollitt made his third challenge to win the Rhondda East constituency. However, the outbreak of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
against Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was thought to have alienated many in the coalfield. At the poll, Mainwaring obtained a majority of 22,182 and Pollitt barely retained his deposit. Mainwaring was a strong supporter of the Government policy of fighting the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, which he declared to be in the interests of workers of Britain.
Welsh nationalism
Mainwaring became a staunch opponent of Welsh nationalismWelsh nationalism
Welsh nationalism emphasises the distinctiveness of Welsh language, culture, and history, and calls for more self-determination for Wales, which may include more Devolved powers for the Welsh Assembly or full independence from the United Kingdom.-Conquest:...
. In 1955 he denounced the assumption that the English "were in some peculiar way wholly foreign and alien to Wales", and ridiculed basing a nation on "poets, preachers and musicians". He supported reform of the system of leasehold ownership to allow leasehold tenants to buy their freeholds
Fee simple
In English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
, attacking the sale of estates to financiers.
Retirement
After being little active in his last Parliament, Mainwaring announced his retirement a year before the 1959 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1959
This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
. He lived to the age of 87.