| 词条 | Will Thorne |
| 释义 |
William Turner Thorne CBE (4 October 1857 – 2 January 1946), known as Will Thorne, was a British trade unionist, activist and one of the first Labour Members of Parliament (MPs). Early yearsThorne was born in Hockley, Birmingham, on 8 October 1857. His father and relatives worked as brickmakers. Thorne's father died in a fight when Thorne was just seven years old. Thorne began working at the age of six, turning a wheel for a rope and twine spinner, working from six in the morning to six at night, with half an hour's break for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Thorne recalls that when the spinner wanted to reduce his wages from 2 shillings and 6 pence to 2 shillings, he "went on strike" and never returned to the job.[1] The family was on poor relief. Thorne's mother and three sisters worked all hours sewing hooks and eyes. "It was here I had intimate experience with sweated labour", he commented without irony. Thorne took a job with his uncle at a brick and tile works, and later, at another brickworks further away. At the age of nine, Thorne recalled: "my mother got me up at four o'clock every morning to give me my breakfast". It was a five-mile walk to work. {{quote|I had to give up this job finally because my mother said that the work was too hard and the distance too long for me to walk every morning and night.I remember her telling me that the 8 s[hillings] a week would be missed; some one would have to go short. But it was no use being slowly killed by such work as I was doing, and it was making me hump backed. It was not until I had been away from the work for several weeks that I was able to straighten myself out again. My mother's rebellion against the way I was being worked is the rebellion of many mothers. It is the rebellion that I feel, and will continue to carry on.|Will Thorne, My Life's Battles, p19|source=}} Political careerThorne served for many years on West Ham Town Council and was Mayor from 1917–18. In 1882, Thorne moved to London and found employment at a gasworks. Thorne joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and became branch secretary. Barely literate, Thorne improved his reading skills with the assistance of Karl Marx's daughter, Eleanor Marx. In 1889, he helped to found the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers, one of the prominent New Unions and became its general secretary. He retained this position in the union and its successors, which became the GMWU in 1924, up to 1934. Thorne also helped to organise the London Dock Strike in 1889. He contested several elections as a Labour candidate; before finally winning a seat representing West Ham South at the 1906 general election. He remained with SDF as it became the British Socialist Party Thorne visited the Soviet Union shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He won the seat of Plaistow in 1918 and retained it until his retirement at the 1945 general election, aged 87 — the oldest sitting member at the time. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1930. A Greater London Council blue plaque, unveiled in 1987, commemorates Thorne at his home, 1 Lawrence Road in West Ham.[2] Footnotes1. ^Thorne, Will, My Life's Battles, p.14ff 2. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/will-thorne/|title=THORNE, WILL (1857-1946)|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=English Heritage|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|accessdate=11 September 2018}} External links
| title = Member of Parliament for West Ham South | years = 1906–1918 }}{{s-non | reason = Constituency abolished }}{{s-new | constituency}}{{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Plaistow | years = 1918–1945 }}{{s-aft | after = Elwyn Jones }}{{succession box | title = Oldest sitting member (not Father of the House) | years = 1935–1945 | before =Edward Brocklehurst Fielden | after = Murdo Macdonald }}{{s-npo|union}}{{succession box | title=General Secretary of the National Union of Gasworkers and General Labourers | before=New position | after= Position abolished | years= 1889–1924}}{{succession box|title=Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress|years=1896|before=Edward Cowey|after=Alexander Wilkie}}{{succession box|title=Trades Union Congress representative to the American Federation of Labour|years=1898|with=William Inskip|before=Edward Harford and Havelock Wilson|after=James Haslam and Alexander Wilkie}}{{succession box | title = President of the Trades Union Congress | years = 1912 | before = William Mullin | after = William John Davis }}{{succession box | title=General Secretary of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers | before=New position | after= Charles Dukes | years= 1924–1934}}{{s-end}}{{GMB (trade union)}}{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, Will}} 25 : 1857 births|1946 deaths|Leaders of British trade unions|General Secretaries of the GMB (trade union)|Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies|British Socialist Party members|Commanders of the Order of the British Empire|Councillors in Greater London|GMB-sponsored MPs|People from Birmingham, West Midlands|Social Democratic Federation members|UK MPs 1906–10|UK MPs 1910|UK MPs 1910–18|UK MPs 1918–22|UK MPs 1922–23|UK MPs 1923–24|UK MPs 1924–29|UK MPs 1929–31|UK MPs 1931–35|UK MPs 1935–45|Presidents of the Trades Union Congress|Mayors of places in Greater London|Members of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress|Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom |
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