Enoch Edwards (April 1852 – 28 June 1912) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Biography

Edwards was born at Talk-o'-the Hill Staffordshire on 10 April 1852. He was the son of a pitman, and worked as a boy in a

coal-mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

. In 1870 he became treasurer of the North Staffordshire Miners' Association and was elected secretary to the same body in 1877. In 1880 he became president of the Midland Miners' Association; he was later president 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' ...

in 1904. In 1884 he went to

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in ...

, where he became a member of the school board and town council in 1886, and later he became alderman and mayor. He was also a member of the

Staffordshire County Council Staffordshire County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire, England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includ ...

. He was elected to Parliament as the

Lib-Lab The Liberal–Labour movement was the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions. These candidates stood for the British Parliament with the aim of representing the ...

MP for

Hanley Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke- ...

in 1906. He then was a Labour Party MP in 1909. He died at Southport 28 June 1912 aged 60.

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* 1852 births 1912 deaths Presidents of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Liberal-Labour (UK) MPs UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of Staffordshire County Council People from Talke Trade unionists from Staffordshire 19th-century British businesspeople {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub