Stephen Walsh (politician) - Misplaced Pages

British trade union official and politician

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Stephen Walsh" politician – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Right HonourableStephen Walsh


Secretary of State for War
In office 22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Bt
Member of Parliament for Ince, Lancashire
In office 12 January 1906 – 16 March 1929
Preceded by	Henry Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell
Succeeded by	Gordon Macdonald

Personal details
Born	26 August 1859 (1859-08-26)
Died	16 March 1929 (1929-03-17) (aged 69)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour

Stephen Walsh (26 August 1859 – 16 March 1929) was a British miner, trade unionist and Labour Party politician.

Background

Born in Liverpool, Walsh became an orphan at a very young age. He was educated at an industrial school in the Kirkdale area of the city, leaving school aged 13 to work in a coalmine in Ashton in Makerfield.

Political career

Walsh was an official of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation before he was elected to parliament for Ince in the 1906 general election. Later that year he attacked the idea that an MP needed an Oxbridge education further adding that: "To use an arithmetical metaphor, the Labour party had reduced the points of difference among the working classes to the lowest common denominator, and had promoted and developed the greatest common measure of united action".

Walsh was a member of David Lloyd George's Coalition Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service in 1917 and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board from 1917 to 1919.

Walsh stood in the 1918 election as a Coalition Labour candidate opposed by the official Labour Party. He was vice-president of National Union of Mineworkers from 1922 to 1924 until he was appointed Secretary of State for War by Ramsay MacDonald in January 1924, a post he held until the government fell in November of the same year. He was sworn of the Privy Council in January 1924.

Family

One of Walsh's sons died in World War I. Walsh himself died in March 1929, aged 69.

References

^ "Obituary: Mr. Stephen Walsh. Labour War Minister". The Times. 18 March 1929. p. 19.
The Manchester Guardian, "The Fear Of The Socialist", 17 October 1906

External links

Stephen Walsh at Spartacus Educational
Stephen Walsh at Hansard

Trade union offices
Preceded byHerbert Smith	Vice-President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain 1922–1924	Succeeded byThomas Richards
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byHenry Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell	Member of Parliament for Ince 1906–1929	Succeeded byGordon MacDonald
Political offices
Preceded byNew office	Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service 1917	Succeeded byCecil Beck
Preceded byWilliam Hayes Fisher	Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board 1917–1919	Succeeded byHon. Waldorf Astor
Preceded byThe Earl of Derby	Secretary of State for War 1924	Succeeded bySir Laming Worthington-Evans, Bt

v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (1924)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Leader of the House of Commons Foreign Secretary	Ramsay MacDonald
Lord Chancellor Leader of the House of Lords	The Viscount Haldane
Lord President of the Council	The Lord Parmoor
Chancellor of the Exchequer	Philip Snowden
Home Secretary	Arthur Henderson
First Lord of the Admiralty	The Viscount Chelmsford
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries	Noel Buxton
Secretary of State for Air	The Lord Thomson
Secretary of State for the Colonies	J. H. Thomas
Lord Privy Seal Deputy Leader of the House of Commons	J. R. Clynes
President of the Board of Education	Charles Trevelyan
Secretary of State for India	Sydney Olivier
Secretary of State for War	Stephen Walsh
Minister of Health	John Wheatley
Secretary for Scotland	William Adamson
Minister of Labour	Tom Shaw
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	Josiah Wedgwood
Postmaster General	Vernon Hartshorn
President of the Board of Trade	Sidney Webb
First Commissioner of Works	Frederick William Jowett

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

Categories: