Enoch Edwards (trade unionist)

For the American physician, see Enoch Edwards (surgeon).

Enoch Edwards (April 1852 – 28 June 1912) was a British trade unionist and politician.

Enoch Edwards

Edwards c.1900

Biography

Edwards was born at Talk-o'-the Hill Staffordshire on 10 April 1852. He was the son of a pitman, and worked as a boy in a coal-mine.^[1]

In 1870 he became treasurer of the North Staffordshire Miners' Association and was elected secretary to the same body in 1877. In 1880 he became president of the Midland Miners' Association; he was later president of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1904.^[1]

In 1884 he went to Burslem, where he became a member of the school board and town council in 1886, and later he became alderman and mayor. He was also a member of the Staffordshire County Council. He was elected to Parliament as the Lib-Lab MP for Hanley in 1906. He then was a Labour Party MP in 1909. He died at Southport 28 June 1912 aged 60.^[2]