National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers

The National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers (NUAW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1906 and 1982. It represented farmworkers.

NUAW

Full name	National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers
Founded	20 July 1906
Date dissolved	1982
Merged into	Transport and General Workers' Union (Agricultural Section)
Members	70,800 (1946)[1]
Journal	The Landworker
Affiliation	TUC, Labour
Key people	George Nicholls (President), George Edwards (Secretary), Richard Winfrey (Treasurer), William "Bill" Holmes (General Secretary).
Office location	308 Gray's Inn Road, London
Country	United Kingdom

History

The union was established as the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers & Small Holders Union at a conference of Norfolk agricultural workers at the Angel Hotel, North Walsham on 20 July 1906. Its first President was George Nicholls, its Secretary (on 13 shillings a week) was George Edwards and its Treasurer was Richard Winfrey. The other members of its Executive Committee were J. Binder, J. Sage, William G. Codling, Herbert Day, J. Bly, C. Holman and J. Stibbins.[2]

The first three branches of the union were in Norfolk at St Faith's (former stronghold of Joseph Arch's old National Agricultural Labourers Union) and Kenninghall and Shipham.[2]

In 1910 major strikes and disputes broke out in the Norfolk villages of Trunch, Knapton and St Faith's. At St Faith's, the 105 union men were on strike from May 1910 until February 1911 for 1 shilling a week extra.[2]

The organisation changed its name in 1910 to the National Agricultural Labourers and Rural Workers Union.[2] Edwards stood down as Secretary in 1913, but then took up the post of President.[3] In 1920, the union became the National Union of Agricultural Workers, and in 1968 the "National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers".[2][4]

The union's stronghold was in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Dorset with over 90% of agricultural labourers being in membership.

William "Bill" Holmes, NUAW General Secretary once told an audience of American trade unionists: "In many of our villages, a man who joins a trade union is worthy of the Victoria Cross that's won on a battlefield. In many villages he dare not be known to be a member of the union. But to be a branch secretary! That is to risk one's livelihood every day in the week".

The union's journal was The Landworker.

The union became the Agricultural Section of the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1982. The Dorset County Committee organises the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs festival along with the TUC.

Election results

The union worked closely with the Labour Party from its early years.[5] Until 1945, it contributed election expenses to some candidates, but no ongoing expenses to those who won election, and therefore it is often not listed as a sponsor in this period.[6]

Election	Constituency	Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Position
1918 general election	King's Lynn	Robert Barrie Walker	9,780	49.1	2[7]
	South Norfolk	George Edwards	6,536	35.7	2[7]
1920 by-election	Horncastle	William Holmes	3,443	18.8	3
1920 by-election	South Norfolk	George Edwards	8,594	45.7	1[7]
1921 by-election	Taunton	James Lunnon	8,290	38.9	2[8]
1922 general election	King's Lynn	Robert Barrie Walker	8,683	32.7	2[9]
	South Norfolk	George Edwards	10,159	44.4	2[9]
	Stafford	Bill Holmes	7,672	41.1	2[9]
1923 general election	Ormskirk	Robert Barrie Walker	9,388	47.0	2
	South Norfolk	George Edwards	11,682	51.9	1
1924 general election	Ormskirk	Robert Barrie Walker	10,402	43.7	2
	South Norfolk	George Edwards	11,376	44.5	2
1929 general election	East Norfolk	Bill Holmes	7,856	23.4	3[5]
1931 general election	East Norfolk	Bill Holmes	6,562	20.2	2
1945 general election	Barkston Ash	Bert Hazell	24,322	49.9	2[10]
	Holland with Boston	Arthur Monks	21,263	44.1	2[10]
	North Norfolk	Edwin Gooch	17,753	58.7	1[10]
1950 general election	Barkston Ash	Bert Hazell	18,626	42.5	2[11]
	North Norfolk	Edwin Gooch	19,790	48.0	1[11]
1951 general election	Central Norfolk	John Lambley	17,270	44.1	2[12]
	North Norfolk	Edwin Gooch	21,067	50.3	1[12]
1955 by-election	South Norfolk	John MacLennan Stewart	14,254	48.5	2
1955 general election	North Norfolk	Edwin Gooch	20,899	51.5	1[13]
	South Norfolk	John MacLennan Stewart	17,215	47.9	2[13]
	Worcester	Leonard Pike	19,508	43.2	2[13]
1959 by-election	South West Norfolk	Albert Hilton	15,314	50.6	1
1959 general election	North Norfolk	Edwin Gooch	19,784	50.9	1[14]
	South Norfolk	John MacLennan Stewart	16,542	46.2	2[14]
	South West Norfolk	Albert Hilton	16,858	50.1	1[14]
	Taunton	Leonard Pike	16,182	35.3	2[14]
1964 general election	North Norfolk	Bert Hazell	19,370	50.1	1[15]
	South West Norfolk	Albert Hilton	16,605	49.2	2[15]
	Taunton	Leonard Pike	16,619	36.2	2[15]
1966 general election	North Norfolk	Bert Hazell	20,796	50.9	1[16]
1970 general election	Ludlow	David Nagington	12,800	31.7	2[17]
	North Norfolk	Bert Hazell	19,903	44.7	2[17]
1974 Oct general election	Sheffield Brightside	Joan Maynard	18,108	49.7	1[18]
1979 general election	Sheffield Brightside	Joan Maynard	25,672	68.5	1[19]

Leadership

General Secretaries

1906: George Edwards

1913: Robert Barrie Walker

1928: Bill Holmes

1944: Alf Dann

1953: Harold Collison

1969: Reg Bottini

1978: Jack Boddy

Presidents

1906: George Nicholls

1911: Walter Robert Smith[20]

1924: Bill Holmes

1928: Edwin Gooch

1966: Bert Hazell

1978: John Hose

See also

• List of trade unions
• List of Transport and General Workers' Union amalgamations
• Transport and General Workers' Union

References

1. Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, p. 77
2. Groves, Reg (2011). Sharpen the Sickle!:The History of the Farm Workers' Union. Merlin Press. ISBN 0-85036-695-X. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
3. "Edwards, Sir George", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
4. Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical Directory of Trade Unions, vol.2, pp. 300–301
5. Griffiths, Clare (2007). Labour and the Countryside. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199287437.
6. Parker, James (2017). Trade unions and the political culture of the Labour Party, 1931–1940 (PDF). Exeter: University of Exeter. p. 179.
7. Howkins, Alun (1985). Poor Labouring Men. Routledge. ISBN 1315447827.
8. Labour Party, Report of the Twenty-first Annual Conference of the Labour Party, p. 41
9. Labour Party, Report of the Twenty-second Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 255–272. Note that this list is of the sanctioned candidates as of June 1922, and there were some changes between this date and the general election.
10. Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 232–248
11. "List of Parliamentary Labour candidates and election results, February 23rd, 1950". Report of the Forty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party: 179–198. 1950.
12. "List of Parliamentary Labour candidates and election results, 25th October, 1951". Report of the Fiftieth Annual Conference of the Labour Party: 184–203. 1951.
13. Labour Party, Report of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 255–275
14. Labour Party, Report of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 179–201
15. Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 158–180
16. Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 308–330
17. Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 289–312
18. Labour Party, Report of the Seventy-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 391–411
19. Labour Party, Report of the Seventy-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 406–431
20. "DEATH OF MR. W. R. SMITH". Northampton Mercury. 27 February 1942. Retrieved 17 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.

External links

• Catalogue of the NUAW archives held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
• Country Standard
• Account of the founding of the union From EASF website