William Mackinder
Member of Parliament
for Shipley
In office
6 December 1923 – 8 September 1930
Preceded byNorman Rae
Succeeded byJames Lockwood (British politician)
Personal details
Born(1880-04-28)28 April 1880
Kingston upon Hull, England
Died8 September 1930(1930-09-08) (aged 50)
Bradford, England
Political partyLabour

William Mackinder (28 April 1880 – 8 September 1930[1]) was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician. Born in Hull, Mackinder worked in the wool industry in Bradford before becoming active in the trade union movement. He was the MP for Shipley from 1923 until his death in 1930.

Early life

Mackinder was born on 28 April 1880 in Hull. At the age of 10[2] he began working half-time at the Bradford Spinning Mill, where he earned 1s 9d (£0.09) a week.[3] He was expected to be at work by 6am, and was late 4 times in his first week on the job, leaving him in debt to his employer due to fines.[3] At 13 he began working full-time on 3s 6d (£0.18) a week.[3]

He worked variously as a woolcomber, spinner, and deep-sea fisherman.[2][4][5] By the age of 33, Mackinder and his wife were working 111 hour weeks for 37s (£1.85) between them at the same mill.[3][6]

During World War I, Mackinder served on a number of control committees.[2] He refused an OBE for this service.[3] From 1914 he served on the Departmental Committee on Anthrax, and he worked to prevent anthrax in the wool industry.[2]

In 1920, Mackinder was in charge of the Yorkshire district of the Warehouse Workers' Union. After an amalgamation, he became Yorkshire Revisional Officer of the National Union of Distributive Allied Workers.[3]

Political career

A group of men standing on steps
Members of the 1926 Empire Parliamentary Delegation at Hotel Canberra. Mackinder is first from the right in the back row.

Mackinder's first foray into politics came at a by-election for the Bradford City Council in 1920. During the campaign, he created controversy by claiming in speeches that wool spinners were profiteering.[7] He had claimed that spinners were making profits of "between 400 and 3,200 per cent".[8][9] He defeated the Conservative candidate George Smith by a majority of 1,221 votes, becoming the 31st Labour member on the 84-member council.[7]

At the 1922 election, Mackinder unsuccessfully contested the Division of Shipley.[10] In the leadup to the election, he is recorded as struggling with a lack of funds for the campaign, being in need of "£150 within a week".[11]

In 1923 he was elected as the Labour representative for Shipley.[2] His first parliamentary contribution was in a debate regarding a national minimum wage. In it, he recalled his family's experience struggling to get by on meagre wages.[6] He was re-elected at the 1924 general election.[2]

In 1925, Mackinder was one of a small group of Labour MPs to visit Bulgaria in the wake of the bombing of the St Nedelya Church. A report prepared by the MPs laid the blame for the attack at the feet of the government of Aleksandar Tsankov and its tactics in suppressing opposition activity. Their report was criticised in The Daily Telegraph as being too sympathetic to the Communist side and bearing similarities to the official line from Moscow.[12]

He was a co-sponsor of a bill to require 8 days of paid leave per year.[13]

In 1926 he visited Australia as part of the Empire Parliamentary Association's delegation.[5] While returning from the trip,[5] he wrote a semi-autobiographical[14] novel called Bone Street. Published in 1927, it depicts his childhood in Hull and time spent as a cook on a fishing trawler.[14]

He was re-elected at the 1929 general election.[2]

Sickness and death

Mackinder's health began to deteriorate in late 1929, when he fell ill in the House of Commons and had to be operated on for appendicitis.[5] He was back at work after Easter of 1930, but by July he had returned to Bradford and been admitted to hospital.[5] He died at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford at 12:20am on 8 September 1930.[2]

Mackinder's funeral was held at the Scholemoor Cemetery on Thursday 11 September 1930. It was attended by numerous parliamentarians and members of the trade union and Labour movements. Fellow Labour MP Ben Turner, gave an address at the funeral, and also wrote an obituary in the Yorkshire Evening Post.[15] There was no religious ceremony. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered to the wind.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 3)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Mill boy to M.P. Death of Mr William Mackinder". Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail. 8 September 1930.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Labour in Holderness Mr W. Mackinder, M.P.'s tour". Hull Daily Mail. 3 February 1925.
  4. ↑ "Death of versatile labour M.P.". Western Daily Press. Yeovil, England. 8 September 1930.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mr W Mackinder, M.P., Dead". The Daily Telegraph. 8 September 1930.
  6. 1 2 William Mackinder (4 March 1924). "National minimum wage". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 170. House of Commons. col. 1295–1341.
  7. 1 2 "Bradford Socialists". The Daily Telegraph. 2 February 1920.
  8. ↑ "Why Clothes Are Dear. Spinners' Enormous Profits. 3,200 Per Cent. Combines Which Fleece The Public". Western Gazette. Yeovil, England. 23 January 1920.
  9. ↑ "How Huge Fortunes Are Made in Woolen Trade. Men With Riches Thrust Upon Them Blame The Government. You Will Have to Pay Fabulous Prices For Clothes This Year". Evening Telegraph. Dundee, Scotland. 19 January 1920.
  10. ↑ "Obituary: William Mackinder". The Adelaide Advertiser. 9 September 1930.
  11. ↑ "Election mems". Hull Daily Mail. 31 October 1922.
  12. ↑ "British Labourites and Bulgarian Crisis. A Curious "Inquiry."". The Daily Telegraph. The correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. 24 April 1925.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  13. ↑ "Holidays with pay. Labour Members' Bill". The Daily Telegraph. 20 May 1925.
  14. 1 2 "Hull-born M.P. Death of Mr W. Mackinder". Hull Daily Mail. 8 September 1930.
  15. ↑ Turner, Ben (8 September 1930). "William Mackinder as I knew him". Yorkshire Evening Post.
  16. ↑ "Funeral of Mr. William Mackinder M.P.". Shipley Times and Express. 13 September 1930.
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