William Edwin Harvey

Painting of William Edwin Harvey by Trevor Haddon

William Edwin Harvey (5 September 1852 – 28 April 1914), known as W. E. Harvey, was a British Lib-Lab Member of Parliament.

Born in Hasland, Derbyshire, Harvey worked in a coal mine from the age of ten. He joined the South Yorkshire Miners' Association (SYMA) in 1869, and was the union's local delegate by 1872. For his trade union activity, he was dismissed from the local pit, but managed to find work at Sheepbridge, then later at Morton. He also converted to Primitive Methodism and in his spare time was a lay preacher.^[1]

In 1880, the Derbyshire-based members of the SYMA split away to form the Derbyshire Miners' Association (DMA), and Harvey became the new union's first treasurer. He resigned in 1882, because union meetings clashed with cricket matches for his employer's team. However, the following year, he was elected as the union's assistant secretary. In 1891, he was elected to the national executive of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB), serving on it in most subsequent years, and in 1894 he was the President of Chesterfield Trades Council.^[1]

Politically a liberal, strongly opposed to socialism and syndicalism, Harvey became the vice-president of the Labour Electoral Association in 1894. This organisation aimed to secure the election of workers under the auspices of the Liberal Party, and Harvey was elected to Chesterfield Borough Council in 1897, serving until his death.^[1]

In 1906, Harvey became financial and corresponding secretary of the DMA, and his high profile secured him the Liberal Party candidacy in the North East Derbyshire by-election, 1907. He was successful, and reluctantly joined the Labour Party in 1910, on the instructions of his union. Despite his seat in Parliament, he remained an active trade unionist, serving as Vice-President of the MFGB from 1912, and as General and Financial Secretary of the DMA from 1913.^[1]

Harvey became increasingly unhappy with how the Labour party was behaving towards the issue of Miners' representation. In particular he was unhappy with the way Barnet Kenyon was treated during and after the Chesterfield by-election, 1913. He therefore decided to resign the Labour whip and re-took the Liberal whip on 30 March 1914.^[2] He died, aged 61, almost a month later.

References

1 2 3 4 Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.1, pp.152-153
↑ "Politics And The Miner." Times [London, England] 13 May 1914: 5. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Thomas Bolton	Member of Parliament for North East Derbyshire 1907 – 1914	Succeeded by George Robert Harland Bowden
Trade union offices
Preceded by Robert Smillie	Vice-President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain 1912–1914	Succeeded by William House
Preceded by James Haslam	Secretary of the Derbyshire Miners' Association 1913–1914	Succeeded by Frank Hall

Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 Enoch Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Ebby Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 Ernest Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson

Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Ebby Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 Ernest Jones 1954 Edward Jones 1960 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas

General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Ebby Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen

Treasurers	1889 Enoch Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson

MFGB affiliates	Bristol Cleveland Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire

Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

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