James C. Welsh (2 June 1880 – 4 November 1954) was a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

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 ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1922 to 1931, and from 1935 to 1945. Welsh worked in mines from the age of 12, an experience which informed his first novels ''The Underworld'' (1920) and ''The Morlocks'' (1924). He later became a full-time official for the mining union.''The Socialist Novel in Britain'', ed. by H. Gustav Klaus (Brighton: Harvester, 1982) 0-7108-0340-0 He unsuccessfully contested the 1918 general election in the

Lanark Lanark ( ; ; ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a populatio ...

constituency. At the 1922 general election, he was elected as MP for

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

constituency, where he was re-elected in

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

and

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, but was defeated at the 1931 general election by the Conservative Party candidate

William Paterson Templeton William Paterson Templeton (8 November 1876 – 4 July 1938) was a Scottish Unionist Party politician. He was a member of the Orange Order. A native of Camlachie, Glasgow, Templeton was a wood turner by trade. Before entering Parliament, Templ ...

. He was returned to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at the 1935 general election as MP for

Bothwell Bothwell () is a Protected area, conservation village in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland and part of the Greater Glasgow area. It lies on the north bank of the River Clyde, adjacent to Uddingston and Hamilton, Scotland, Hamilton, ...

, and held the seat until he stepped down at the 1945 general election.

Selected works

*''Songs of a Miner'' (1917) * ''The Underworld'' (1920) *''The Morlocks'' (1924) *''Norman Dale, M.P.'' (1928)

Sources

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References

External links

* * * 1880 births 1954 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs Scottish Labour MPs UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1935–1945 Scottish novelists Proletarian literature 20th-century Scottish novelists Scottish male novelists Scottish miners {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub