Herbert Smith (trade unionist)

British trade unionist and miner

Herbert Smith (17 July 1862 – 16 June 1938) was a British trade unionist and miner.

Born in Kippax, West Yorkshire, Smith was orphaned at a young age and spent time in a workhouse before being adopted by a local couple, one of whom was a miner. He later said that he never went to school. Smith then studied in Glasshoughton and Pontefract, and began working as a miner at the age of ten. Smith became active in his union, being elected to the branch committee at the age of seventeen, then in 1894 becoming a checkweighman. In 1896 he became Chairman of Castleford Trades Council, and in 1906 he became President of the Yorkshire Miners' Association. He joined the Independent Labour Party, and was elected to the West Riding County Council in 1903, and stood unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in Morley at the December 1910 general election. He was later elected as a councillor in Barnsley.

Smith was also involved in the Miners' International Federation, serving as president from 1921 until 1929, and in Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB), becoming its president in 1922. He was active in support of the UK general strike of 1926, but resigned as MFGB President in 1929, objecting to the organisation's agreement to lengthen miners' hours. Despite standing for re-election to the post in 1930 and 1931, he was unsuccessful, but he did serve as Mayor of Barnsley in 1932.

Smith became nationally known for leading rescue efforts following mining disasters, starting with the Wellington Pit Disaster in Whitehaven in 1910, and including the Bentley Pit Disaster of 1931 and the Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery Disaster of 1936.

References

Bibliography

Lawson J. J. (1941) The Man in the Cap: The Life of Herbert Smith London: Methuen & co.

Trade union offices
Preceded byJohn Wadsworth	Vice-President of the Yorkshire Miners' Association 1904–1906	Succeeded byJohn Guest
Preceded byJohn Wadsworth	President of the Yorkshire Miners' Association 1906–1938	Succeeded byJoe Hall
Preceded byWilliam House	Vice-President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain 1917–1922	Succeeded byStephen Walsh
Preceded byRobert Smillie	President of the Miners' International Federation 1921–1929	Succeeded byJoseph Dejardin
Preceded byRobert Smillie	President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain 1922–1929	Succeeded byThomas Richards
Preceded byJ. H. Thomas and James Walker	Trades Union Congress representative to the American Federation of Labour 1922 With: Edward L. Poulton	Succeeded byWilliam C. Robinson and Robert Barrie Walker

v t e Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 En. Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Eb. Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 E. Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson
Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Eb. Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 E. Jones 1954 T. Jones 1961 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas
General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Eb. Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen
Treasurers	1889 En. Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson
Affiliates and areas	Bristol Cleveland Cokemen Colliery Officials and Staffs Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties (Cannock Chase North Staffordshire Old Hill Pelsall Shropshire Warwickshire West Bromwich) Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire Mid and East Lothian Mid and West Lothian Stirling) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire
Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

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