Socialist and lifelong member of Salem Independent Methodist, Nelson, Lancs. where he was both a Sunday school teacher and preacher. Born on 2 February 1879 in Nelson, he spent his time working part of his time in a mill and the remainder as an unpaid lecturer and propagandist. He was a member of the No More War Movement and the Peace Pledge Union. For being a contentious objector in the First World War he was imprisoned. He stood at Stourbridge for Labour, unsuccessfully in 1923 and 1924, gained the seat at a by-election in February 1927, retained it until 1931, and failed again in 1935. He was a prolific pamphleteer and sympathetic to Mahatma Gandhi. He died on 22 July 1972.