William Thomas Paling (28 October 1892 – 10 April 1992) 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 ...

Labour Party politician. Born in Marehay,

Ripley, Derbyshire Ripley is a market town and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. It is northeast of Derby, northwest of Heanor, southwest of Alfreton and northeast of Belper. The town is continuous with Heanor, Eastwood, Nottingham ...

, Paling was the son of George Paling, a coalminer, from

Sutton in Ashfield Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 36,404 in 2021. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, from the Derbyshire border and north of Nottingham. Ge ...

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. At the age of 14 he started work in the local colliery before winning a scholarship to the

Central Labour College The Central Labour College, also known as The Labour College, was a British higher education institution supported by trade unions. It functioned from 1909 to 1929. It was established on the basis of independent working class education. The colle ...

in London. At the college he studied economics, industrial history and sociology. He also began his association with Labour politics. He returned to the coalfields where he became a checkweighman. In 1928 he was elected to the West Riding County Council, holding the seat until his election to Parliament. Paling made his first attempt to enter Parliament at

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

, where he stood unsuccessfully at the general elections of

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 ...

and

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

. Throughout the 1930s he was active in the miners' trade unions. At the 1945 general election Paling was elected 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 ...

as Member of Parliament for

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...

. He was sponsored by the National Union of Mineworkers and used his position in parliament to promote mine and industrial safety. His brother,

Wilfred Paling Wilfred Paling (7 April 1883 – 17 April 1971) was a British Labour Party politician. He was born at Marehay, near Ripley, Derbyshire, one of eight children of a coalminer. Paling left Ripley Elementary School at the age of 13, and entere ...

, was also a Labour MP and held positions as Minister of Pensions and then

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in the labour Government of 1945–1951. Paling was re-elected at Dewsbury in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

and

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

. In 1957 he was making a visit to the

British Army of the Rhine British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the name given to British Army occupation forces in the Rhineland, West Germany, after the First and Second World Wars, and during the Cold War, becoming part of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) tasked ...

to examine the conditions of national servicemen when he was involved in an air accident. The resulting neck injury led to his retirement at the 1959 general election. Paling had a long retirement, dying in April 1992, aged 99.

References

* 1892 births 1992 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 People from Ripley, Derbyshire {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub