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Enoch Edwards Story, Pit boy to Politician Research by John Lumsdon

Enoch Edwards (Born April1852 –Died June 28, 1912) He was a British trade unionist and politician.Edwards was born at Talk-o'-the Hill and became a coal miner as a child. He was elected to Staffordshire County Council before becoming President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1904, and then MP for Hanley in 1906.

In the election of 1906 he was elected as a Lib-Lab for Hanley. In 1900 he had contested the seat against the Tory MP A.H. Heath. At that election he lost by 642 votes. In 1906 the result was 9,183 for Edwards and 4,287 for Heath a majority of 4,896. He died at Southport June 28 1912.

Enoch Edwards was born on 10th April 1852 and was the oldest son of James Edwards a miner from "Talke O' the Hill" colliery near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. At the age of 9 after a very meagre education at a local Methodists Day School he started work at Hollinwood Colliery for 6d a day which was then owned by the Birchenwood Coal & Iron Co. Ltd.

On Saturday March 17th 1906 Enoch was entertained at Dinner by the North Staffordshire Miners Federation (NSMF) at the Grand Hotel Hanley in celebration of his election as MP for Hanley. In his speech he related to some of his experiences of his early years in coal mining.

Alone in the Pit with a dead man

One day at the pit he was running errands for the Butty, shortly afterwards there was an accident. It was agreed that the men who were in the pit must come out and he was told by the head Butty to go along to the Four Feet level and fetch a man out who was working by himself 800 yards away. The head Butty said he himself would fetch the others out who were about 300 yards from the shaft bottom and they would be gone up when he returned.

Enoch then started off along this 800 yards roadway, the last 100 yards was up a rather steep incline and when he traversed this he did not know where the man was working so he called out. He stood there alone with a candle in his hand; it was one of those things that was indelibly engraved on his mind, something he will never forget. He called out again, still no answer. He ventured to take a heading to the left and walked into the face where a man, six feet in stature with about two hundredweight of clod across his jaw.

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He got some of the dirt off him but the poor man was beyond human aid. He then retraced his steps in fear and trembling that his candle should go out. Down the dip he went and along the rest of the 800 yards level. When he got to the pit bottom, the others had gone up and he was left alone in the pit with a dead man, he a boy ten years of age.

They used coves in those days (a receptacle for carrying coal up the shaft) and he managed with difficulty to step into it. He pulled the bell line, then instead of going up it went down until he got to the surface of the water in the sump then it went back up. By the greatest good fortune in due time he landed at the top.

His other recollections were; the hours were long, from six o’ clock in the morning to half past five and sometimes later in the evening and the wages were 6p a day. Not withstanding the long hours and the hard toil (to which of course no lad could be subjected to now) he was not without aspirations to rise in the world. One of the men at the pit took an interest in him and placed books at his disposal with the advice to improve him as much as possible. Later a library was started in connection with the Sunday school and a great variety of books was made available.

Leaving Hollingwood colliery in 1869 Enoch went to Talke o’ the Hill pit. His involvement in Union work started at the age of 17 when he started collecting money for the local Miners Association. Even when his Colliery Manager threatened him with the "sack" for this he was not deterred. At about the same time he also started to take an interest in Friendly Societies and soon after became appointed Secretary for the local Talke Branch of the Ancient Order of Shepherds, later becoming Secretary for the District, a position he held for 14 years. He also became a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters.

By the time he was eighteen Enoch had taught himself to read and had even become a Sunday school teacher. He was to continue to have links and strong views about education for the rest of his life. However, he remained in the local mining industry and worked at several collieries in North Staffs.

Recovering bodies at Talke 1873

During his connection with Talke-o’-the-Hill pit, some of the most terrible calamities which visited the neighbourhood occurred. On the occasion of the deplorable explosion in 1873 he was in the pit at the time, but fortunately he was uninjured. He, on several occasions assisted in rescuing men under the most difficult and dangerous circumstances, some of the bodies had their cloths burnt and blown off them and some were unrecognisable.

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About this time he was requested by the management of the colliery to take up an official position. He however preferred the calling of a collier, with the freedom from anxiety of a responsible post.

In 1874 he left the colliery and found employment under the Harecastle Colliery Company, at this colliery Mr. Edwards was again offered and again refused a responsible appointment.

Many of the miners’ leaders were Methodists and Enoch was a leading figure in the Primitive Methodist Church. It was a far cry from the days when in 1739 John Wesley had preached to the colliers. But the rise of the Primitive Methodist connection was not so remote. Enoch Edwards had been born in the same year as saw the death of Hugh Bourne , the millwright who, from his Methodist society in Burslem, had carried his gospel to the colliers in Kidsgrove and Harriseahead, and who along with William Clowes (1780-1851) of Burslem had held the first “camp meeting” on Mow Cop.

Often must Enoch in his youth have heard of those two men and of their followers, who schooled in self-expression, had played a part in leading strikes and building trade unions. And now within site of the lofty Mow Cop, the Mecca of Primitive Methodism, Enoch Edwards preached in the chapel every Sunday that he was at home in Burslem

The State of the Union

During his time as a collier Enoch became involved with the local Mine Rescue Services and took part in several successful rescue operations involving miners who had become trapped underground as the result of accidents.

It was argued persuasively that it is the uncertainty of coal production that is one of the main causes of the behaviour of miners not least as trade unionists.That real divisions within the sector such as competitiveness encouraged thedominance of county unions over national ones, and that the period 1868-1875was one example of the coal-owners imposing their will to maintain this pattern as it was less threatening than a national union.

It was the behaviour of the owners that drove the Amalgamated Associationof Miners (AAM) ‘into an almost unbroken series of strikes and lockouts,producing starvation conditions for mining families and an eventual unbearablefinancial situation for the union’. This analysis of the pit based lodge formingthe essence of the county union within a decision-making framework ofconferences and then seeking to merge into a national union reflected the moveto national markets and a national industry.

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The varied struggles of the miners’ in the previous fifty years came together in an upsurge in union activity and organisation that allowed, really for the first time, the possibility of permanent bodies to represent workers in collective bargaining without endless recourse to strikes and/or collapse in the wake of employers’ counter-offensives when trade fell away and wages dropped. In North Staffordshire this took the shape and form of the North Staffs Miners’ Federation

Enoch Joined the North Staffs Miners Association

Enoch joined the Butt Lane branch of the North Staffs Miners’ Association. Then after his marriage, becoming lodge treasurer within a few months, and check weighman in 1875. Later in the same year he was made treasurer of the association, and two years later he was elected general secretary, a position he held until his death.

(Elected and paid by hewers, as a check-weighman he would be responsible for ensuring miners received the full amount due for the coal they dug and would act as their legal representative.)

A brass miners' association badge, issued by the North Staffordshire Miners' Federation. Such badges signified that their wearers were paid up members of the Federation either up to or commencing from June of 1903. The Obverse of this badge bears an impression of a Staffordshire knot while the reverse depicts

the full frontal portrait of what appears to be Enoch Edwards.

Edwards helped to establish the “Miners’ Federation of Great Britain” (MFGB)In 1889, and became a leading figure in the new organisation. He was national treasurer from 1889 to 1904 and succeeded Ben Pickard as president from 1904 until his death in 1912.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century colliers in every coal-mining area attempted to form unions. Colliery owners refused to negotiate with these organizations and the colliers were invariably defeated. The 1830s saw a growing market for coal. This improved the bargaining position of the colliers and in 1831 and 1832 miners in Northumberland and Durham joined together to gain a reduction in hours and the abolition of the truck system. This encouraged miners from other parts of the country to form district associations.

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In the summer of 1888 the price of coal began to rise. All over Britain miners began to talk about the need for a pay increase.

When colliery owners rejected the claims of the Yorkshire Miners' Association, its leader, Ben Pickard, sent out a circular inviting all miners "to attend a conference for the purpose of considering the best means of securing a 10% advance in wages and of trying to find common ground for action." The Conference took place in Derby on 29th October, 1888 where the formation of a new national union was discussed but no agreement was reached.

Ben Pickard called another conference in Newport on 26th November 1889. Pickard selected Newport as it was fiftieth anniversary of the Chartist Newport Uprising. Those attending included James Keir Hardie, Thomas Burt, Herbert Smith, Sam Woods, Thomas Ashton and Enoch Edwards. At the conference it was decided to form the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). Officers elected included Pickard (president), Woods (vice-president), Edwards (treasurer) and Ashton (secretary).

Royal Commission in Mines

The unremitting attention paid by the Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) to the need for increased safety in coal mines, carried on persistently for fifteen years had a considerable effect on the Home Office. Not for a moment was the Home Secretary allowed to forget the demands of the MFGB, while Parliament more and more became a sounding board which roused echoes through the country. Pressure was building up and the great increase in January 1906 election in the number of mining MPs also had its effect, Enoch was elected at this time and was also appointed on June 7th 1906 to the Royal Commission in Mines.

But the accident rate in the UK was still much too high and the Commission conducted painstakingly and complicated investigation into all matters that seemed then to bear upon the health and safety of miners. The Coal Mines Act of 1911 which followed hard upon the final report of the Commission passed through Parliament with much less opposition than usual. Its provision with six parts and nearly a hundred sections (too elaborate and detailed to be given here) made it at that time the most advanced mining law in Europe or America.

It was a far cry from the meagre provisions of the 1850 Act this most extensive detailed and technical state regulations of the daily working of a great industry.

Some of the new provisions are very far reaching in effect and of great importance for the workers in the mine and all those engaged in the coal industry.

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They give increased power to the workmen, who, acting by a majority, can now demand more stringent inspection by elected fellow-workmen for the safety of all their fellows. This, plus all the other aspects of the Act, and the owners will obtain much greater security for the mines as a result of the Act.

The elaborate Act was in itself a magnificent tribute to the work of the Miners Federation and to the unity of the miners which made it possible for the leaders to carry on in the country and in the House of Commons the campaign that was responsible for bringing it into being. It was the reward of twenty years of mounting agitation and marked a great step forward and Enoch Edwards played his part in that.

Other Aspects of Enoch’s Career

Enoch's career in local union work led him into ever more important offices both in the spheres of British Mining and politics. At the time of his death Enoch was a J.P. for Burslem, Secretary and Agent of the North Staffordshire Miners Federation, President of the Midland Miners' Federation plus President of the Miners Federation of Great Britain (of which he had been Treasurer prior to becoming President).

During a discussion in parliament on the Whitehaven colliery disaster, Enoch Edwards MP. also secretary of the North Staffs Miners Federation put a resolution to the House of Commons on safety in mines which included:“And this House is also of the opinion that rescue and experimental stations with suitable rescue appliances should be set up in all mining areas.

Then on June 27th 1910 a Bill was introduced to make provision with respect to organisation for the purpose of rescue and aid in the case of accidents in mines.”After much discussion the Bill was read for the first time amid cheers.Extract from, “Right to Work Bill” 1996 proposed by, (Sir Ralph Frederic Howell (25 May 1923 – 14 February 2008) was a British Conservative politician and farmer. He served as MP for North Norfolk for 27 years.)26 June 1996 : Column 267

Unemployment carries further costs in stress, increased sickness, marriage break-up, crime and drug-taking and it is no good denying that there is a connection between crime and unemployment. Everybody should have an opportunity to work, everybody should have a right to work and everybody should have a right to the dignity of earning a living. We could deliver that and save at least £5 billion a year.

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The Bill states that the state should become the employer of last resort and should offer work to anybody who has no other work.

That idea is not new. It was first introduced in the House in 1911 by Keir Hardie, who by that time was not top of the pops in the Labour party. A rehash of the Keir Hardie Bill was introduced again by a Member of Parliament named Enoch Edwards in 1912.

A commemorative brass Miners’ association badge/check issued by the North Staffordshire Miners’ Federation c.1912This brass check or badge is exceptional in its design. Most circular Miners’ Association checks are normally in the order of 32 mm in diameter and 1mm thick. The piece illustrated is comparatively much larger at 38 mm diameter and 2.5 mm

thick. It also has an embossed circular border on its reverse that is relatively uncharacteristic for such issues, apart from the two usual holes at the check’s edge, which were used for sewing it onto the owner’s jacket lapel or cap.

The Minimum Wage

After many meetings and joint meetings (which some coal owners refused to attend) Ministers had also been making heavy weather with the coal owners not only the three day Joint Meetings, but also the separate discussions with employers, had failed to bring a settlement. Accordingly when the miner’s conference reassembled on March 15th it heard of the complete breakdown of the negotiations. “We have had a lengthy day at the Foreign Office” reported Enoch Edwards, “and it has not been a joint meeting between the owners and us, it has simply been your committee with representatives from the Government. They have abandoned any hope of ever coming to an agreement with the employers. We have worked hard and deserve better success but it is the lot of people sometimes to fall short of their deserts. Mr. Asquith has told us that they shall bring in a Bill to compel the owners to pay a “minimum wage.”

On March 21st the Bill went through the various stages and on the 26th March was defeated. It then went to the House of Lords where minor amendments were made and accepted by the Commons and the Bill became law on March 29th. The miner’s conference recognised their mandate had been exhausted and passed a resolution of thanks to the Labour Party “for the great help they have rendered” and decided that a ballot vote of the men be taken with the upmost speed on whether or not to go on with the strike.

The miners generally believed that they had been tricked. The new law gave no more; they felt than had already been conceded in the English coal field. This was also the opinion voiced by some socialist leaders.

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Politically there was revulsion of feeling against the Liberals, for whom a majority of the workers had voted fifteen months earlier. Abroad, the leaders of the continental unions were perplexed at the issue. From Paris Lenin commented; The Government pretended to be neutral, intervened in the negotiations between the workers and capitalists, pretended to yield to the workers, secured the recognition in Parliament of the principle of the minimum wage, but, as a matter of fact, took the side of Capital and did not do anything to secure this minimum wage.

During the whole of the negotiations for the minimum wage (5s a day for adults 2s a day for boys) and during the strike, Enoch Edwards, though far from well had remained at his post. But the strain and the overwork had broken him: and after an illness of some weeks he died on June 28th 1912.

The delegates to the Twenty-third Conference of the International Miners’ Federation on July 15th paid tribute to his memory. Robert Smillie said; To Mr. Edwards more than anyone else living today, or anyone connected to or has been connected with the Federation, is due the fact that the miners have been for some time now, absolutely solidly organised together in one body. To him is due the fact that what at one time were warring branches, who had the same interest at stake, were drawn together.

Persons holding extreme views, in all probability, however honest and anxious they might be to establish a great ideal, might through their very extreme views prevent them getting very far in that direction; but Mr. Edwards had a desire to see the whole mining movement of Great Britain carried forward together under one banner, and he had that peculiar temperament which could overlook to a great degree the extreme views of others, and could work for the for the purpose of unity. It was due to a great extent to him that we became united North, South, East, and West under one common banner in the Federation of all miners of the country.

At the Conciliation Board on July 15th, the employers’ Chairman said of Enoch Edwards that “there has never been an unpleasant word uttered by him at any of the meetings. He has taken up his own side and advocated it, I need not say with great ability, but he has never put matters in such a way that anyone could go away from the meeting and feel he had acted harshly or unkindly in any way. He has been conspicuous by his ability and by his moderation, and by his trying to look at both sides of the question.”

Ashton, who had worked with him over a third of a century, wrote in his record that: Mr. Edwards had no enemies. He was respected by all men and women who knew him.

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He was a leader that the men he represented might trust as being honest, straightforward and reliable in debate and advocacy of their cause. He was a true and faithful comrade and trustworthy colleague.

Enoch Edwards Death

An announcement was made 28th June 1912 that stated; We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. Enoch Mr Edwards MP which took place at Southport at twelve minutes past two this morning in the presence of his son, councillor T.H. Edwards, Mr E. Edwards had a nervous breakdown after a prolonged strain of the recent national strike of miners. He had been in indifferent health for some time. Last Friday however he sustained a stroke and his condition was perceived to be very serious.

L to R - W Abraham, T G Ashton E Edwards R SmillieMarch 4th 1912 Leaders of 1,000,000 striking miners.

E Edwards is President of the Miners’ Federation, he and W Abraham are MPsPhoto with kind permit ion of Vicki Edwards, (great granddaughter of E Edwards)

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After the second reading of the Bill in the House of Commons the prolonged efforts to attain the principle of the minimum wage Enock said; “I stand here almost a wreck after six months of hard work in the interests of peace.”

This was the H.Q. of the North Staffs Miners Federation. It in now empty and stands at the junction of Waterloo Rd and Park Rd. Burslem 5th April 2011

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Enoch Edwards Esq. M. P. President of the Miners federation of Great Britain 1904 - 1912

Presented by the members of the above Federation as a token of their esteem

Conclusion

Enoch Edwards was emphatically one of the men of his time, he laboured for better working hours and pay and conditions for the miners both locally and nationally and by means of the International Congress which he assisted to promote, He was president of the International Miners Congress and frequently attended the meetings on the continent and went to the United States as a trade union representative and was received by president Roosevelt. He hoped to further improve industrial conditions both abroad and at home and to stimulate the causes of international understanding and good will into the bargain. In one way and another Mr. Edwards was an enormous force for material, morel, social, political and international progress, and his success was all the greater because he adopted conciliatory methods while pursuing his purposes resolutely.

The local miners’ and miners everywhere have lost a leader who not only fought their battles resolutely, but had the good sense to perceive that moderate courses sometimes succeed best.

The fact that he was held in high regard by the coal owners, that they seldom hesitated to submit confidential information to his inspection when controversy arose, was an asset of immense value to interests committed to his care, even though it was not always appreciated by others as it might have been.

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T G Ashton, who had worked closely with him for over a third of a century, wrote in his record that: Mr Edwards had no enemies’. He was respected by all men and women who knew him. He was a leader that the men he represented

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might trust as being honest, straightforward and reliable in debate an advocacy of their cause. He was a true and faithful comrade and trustworthy colleague.

The Miners' Federation of Great Britain became the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on 1st January 1945.