Percy Lawrence Wells, JP (8 June 1891 – 3 April 1964) was a British

trade union 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 ...

official and Labour Party politician. Wells was born in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and went to

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

school in

Greenhithe Greenhithe may refer to: *Greenhithe, Kent Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Gree ...

. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, in which he served for three years; on leaving, he travelled around the world, stopping in Canada, the United States of America, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia. In 1919, Wells became an official of the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general union, general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900 ...

. By the end of the 1930s he was Kent General Secretary of the union, and in 1937 he did his best to stop an unofficial strike of busmen. He was made a Justice of the Peace for Kent in 1938 and served on the Central Agricultural Wages Board; a large number of TGWU members in Kent were agricultural labourers. At the 1945 general election, Wells was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Faversham Faversham () is a market town in Kent, England, from Sittingbourne, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2 road (Great ...

, and was immediately picked by

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and ...

( Foreign Secretary) as his Parliamentary Private Secretary. He retained the role until Bevin's death in 1951. Later in the 1950s Wells campaigned for more industries to come to

Sheerness Sheerness () is a port town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 13,249, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby ...

and the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the districts of England, local government district of Borough ...

. He had to fight hard in a marginal constituency, and in the 1955 general election had a majority of only 59 votes. Against the trend, he improved his majority in

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

, but only to 253. In poor health, he announced his retirement in 1961, but died before the end of the Parliament. His seat was retained for Labour in the resulting by-election by Terence Boston.

References

*M. Stenton and S. Lees, ''Who's Who of British MPs'' Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981) *Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 6 April 1964

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Percy 1891 births 1964 deaths British trade unionists Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Transport and General Workers' Union-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964