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James Holmes: Moustache wearer & Cardiff rail union official who moved motion that led to the Labour Party 125 years ago this week

In Uncategorized on February 28, 2020 by kmflett

The Labour Representation Committee was founded 125 years ago at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon St (26th and 27th February 1900). A plaque still exists but the hall is now an office block near to Ludgate Circus.

The LRC led to the formation of the Labour Party in 1906 when 29 Labour MPs were elected.

The man who moved the resolution at the 1899 TUC that called for the LRC conference to be held was James Holmes.

Holmes was a delegate from and officer of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (now the RMT in effect).

He was at that time based in South Wales and lived in Cathays Cardiff. He was central in the early 1900s to the Taff Vale dispute, one of the landmark issues in the development of trade union and Labour politics in the UK.

His political and union activity is a fascinating snapshot of the transition in the labour movement from Liberal to independent Labour politics and a reminder of the role that trade union officials had in the formation of the Labour Party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Holmes_(trade_unionist)

There is a much fuller account in Holmes’ entry in the Dictionary of Labour Biography which can be found by Googling his name.

Beyond all that Holmes was a moustache wearer underlining the link between Labour politics and facial hair

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