Kippax and its Presidents

[grumpytramp]

I am sure that no-one would disagree that Kippax is typical of a West Yorkshire mining village/town that grew and expanded with the coal industry own expansion during the second half of the nineteenth century.In fact it is typical off a myriad of similar community stretching from the Leicestershire coalfield all the way to the northern extent of the Northumberland coalfield.It therefore came something of a surprise to me, to discover the contribution made by Kippax to organised labour in the coal industry.There had been a fledgling Miners Association of Great Britain and Ireland since 1842, but Yorkshire & East Midland miners had failed to be associated (principally due to the aggressive strike breaking tactics of the colliery companies). As far as I understand the colliers relied on the likes of the West Yorkshire Miners Association, South Yorkshire Miners Associations and various friendly societies to represent them. Following the Reform Act of 1884, where the majority of colliers won the right to vote in Parliamentary elections, five colliers were returned to Parliament as Liberal MPs;Charles Fenwick (Wansbeck)William Crawford (Mid-Durham) John Wilson (Houghton)William Abraham (Rhondda)Ben Pickard (Normanton) Quote: See http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUminers.htmIn 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). The Miners' Federation of Great Britain was not strictly speaking a national union, as it sought to represent the position of its various constituent Associations and various regions remained outside the MFGB. The South Wales Miners' Federation formed in formed in 1898 joined the MFGB in 1899, the Northumberland Miners' Federation joined in 1907 and Durham Miners' Federation in 1908. It wasn't until January 1945 that the MFGB became a national union and morphed to become the National Union of Mineworkers.So what has this got to do with Kippax?Well since the inception of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1889 and it's junior offspring the National Union of Mineworkers in 1945; there have been 15 Presidents (including of course Sid Ford, Joe Gormley, Arthur Scargill and the current incumbent Ian Lavery )Well, astonishingly, not just one but two of the fifteen presidents of the MFGB/NUM were very much sons of Kippax!The first President of The Miners' Federation of Great Britain and Liberal MP, Ben Pickard was born in Kippax in 1842. He was educated at Kippax Grammer School before entering t'pit at the age of 12 [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Pickard ]The fourth president of the The Miners' Federation of Great Britain was Herbert Smith who was elected in 1922 and serving until 1929 when he resigned, objecting to the Federations agreement to lengthen miners' hours. He, of course, then presided over the Federation during the arguably one of its important disputes the 1926 General Strike and the following disastrous colliers strike. Herbert Smith was born in Kippax in 1862, orphaned and brought up in a workhouse before being adopted by a local couple. He started down t'pit at the age of 10 [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Sm ... _unionist) ]I wonder (from a few hundred miles away) whether there is any recognition of the contribution made by Pickard and Smith anywhere in Kippax?