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Jack Shingfield
Workers Union - Eastern Counties
William John Shingfield (known as Jack) was the son of an agricultural labourer and member of Joseph Arch's Agricultural labourers union in Suffolk.
Shingfield became a footman, but his skills in organising nsured he became a key Workers Union organiser in Essex and Suffolk from around 1913.
Shingfield helped establish numerous Workers Union branches in villages and towns between 1913-1914 in Suffolk and Essex, becoming the Eastern Counties organiser of the Workers Union.
He lived at 127 Wellesley Road, Clacton on Sea and was the first elected Labour councillor on the Clacton Urban District Council and later its Chairman.
Involved in organising workers at textile factories at Haverhill in August 1914 and January 1915,
Reported injured on WW1 casualty list September 1917,
Organised a huge Workers union "Pageant of the Workers" at Bury St Edmunds on 15 June 1919
Member of Suffolk and Essex Agricultural Wages Board in the 1920's
Sudbury Labour Party formed Febuary 1923
He was Labour candidate for Sudbury in 1925-1933 and was responsible for organising many rural Labour Parties in Sudbury and Essex (notably Halstead Labour HQ in 1918)
Later he was appointed Divisional organiser of the Transport & General Workers Union based at 8 High street, then Military road, Colchester and was chair of the TGWU Agricultural sector. (now Unite)
Retired in 1950 and awarded an MBE in 1950
Other workers Union organiser
Florence Saward
Robert O Hornagold
Labour Candidate
Joseph Rouse Hicks Labour Party/Agriculrual workers candidate Sudbury 1918
Jack Shingfield
Workers Union - Eastern Counties
William John Shingfield (known as Jack) was the son of an agricultural labourer and member of Joseph Arch's Agricultural labourers union in Suffolk.
Shingfield became a footman, but his skills in organising nsured he became a key Workers Union organiser in Essex and Suffolk from around 1913.
Shingfield helped establish numerous Workers Union branches in villages and towns between 1913-1914 in Suffolk and Essex, becoming the Eastern Counties organiser of the Workers Union.
He lived at 127 Wellesley Road, Clacton on Sea and was the first elected Labour councillor on the Clacton Urban District Council and later its Chairman.
Involved in organising workers at textile factories at Haverhill in August 1914 and January 1915,
Organised a huge Workers union "Pageant of the Workers" at Bury St Edmunds on 15 June 1919
Member of Suffolk and Essex Agricultural Wages Board in the 1920's
Sudbury Labour Party formed Febuary 1923
He was Labour candidate for Sudbury in 1925-1933 and was responsible for organising many rural Labour Parties in Sudbury and Essex (notably Halstead Labour HQ in 1918)
Later he was appointed Divisional organiser of the Transport & General Workers Union based at 8 High street, then Military road, Colchester and was chair of the TGWU Agricultural sector. (now Unite)
Retired in 1950 and awarded an MBE in 1950
Other workers Union organiser
Florence Saward
Robert O Hornagold
Labour Candidate
Joseph Rouse Hicks Labour Party/Agriculrual workers candidate Sudbury 1918
Socialism came to rural towns and villages by numerous routes, the famous Clarion vans, The non-conformists, the trade unions, and in the case of Sudbury in Suffolk, via the silk weavers, who's factory owners had moved their premises out of London to Suffolk to escape the unionisation and militancy of London weavers demanding fair pay.
Despite the factory owners best efforts, by 1890 Sudbury, Hadleigh silk weavers and those in surrounding towns in Suffolk were demanding improved pay and on strike or threatening strikes to achieve those objectives.
Britain's first avowed socialist party the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) keen to offer support sent one of its most famous speakers John E Williams fresh from free speech fights in London to speak in Sudbury in August 1890 and as a direct result this meeting a branch of the Social Democratic Federation was formed in Sudbury.
The first delicate buds of socialism had appeared in Sudbury, buds that would bloom and even deliver a Labour MP for the the town in 1945, a furrow that its hard working exponents still plough to this day in the hope of achieving a better world for working people.
"Socialism is the hope of the World"
Jack Shingfield
