How to navigate the Who's Who
Click on the letters on the right and scroll down until you find the
person you want. Alternatively, use the search function.
What is this site about?
This site is about the
many people who have been involved in the continuing struggle for social
justice in the Leicester area. It aims to provide a short biography of
those individuals who tried, in some way, to improve the life of their
fellow citizens. I hope that this site can remind us of their contribution
and tell us something of the issues they
faced and the obstacles they had to overcome.
Work in progress
There was no
scientific test for inclusion in this Who's Who other than my judgement. I
therefore take full responsibility for any omissions, accidental or
otherwise. I have not listed any living
people and the length of an individual’s entry does not necessarily
reflect
their historical importance. In many cases, it just reflects the amount of
information that has survived. Some people have been left out simply
because too little was recorded about them. I have only sought to
chronicle that part of a person's life which was lived in or is relevant
to the history of Leicester. As more details come to light
about individuals, I will try and update the site. Death will inevitably
provide more entries, so this site will always be a work in
progress.
If you have more information, or would
like to correct a mistake, please get in touch. Any
suggestions about people who could be included will be welcome. Not all my
sources have been fully listed and I will try and update this in due
course. If you have a photo or picture of someone, I would be pleased to
have a copy. If you use material from this site, an acknowledgement would be
appreciated.
About Leicester's Radical History
Leicester has a radical tradition
that can be traced back to the end of the 18th century through Chartists,
Abolitionists, Reformers, Owenites and Radicals. After 1850, this
tradition was subsumed in the radical wing of Liberal Party. During the
1880-90s, new working class organisations emerged and the character of the
20th century Labour Movement took shape. By 1900, Leicester already had a
pre-eminent place in British Labour history. The City’s radical
inheritance meant that the local socialist, co-operative and Labour
movements were more advanced than in many other towns. In the early 1900s,
Leicester not only had a national trade union based in the City, but was
also the national centre of co-operatively owned factories. Its retail
co-operative society had grown from humble beginnings into a large
enterprise that provided a market for the goods from the local co-op
factories. There was a well established branch of the Independent Labour
Party whose MP became leader of the Labour Party and eventually its first
prime minister.
Those who fought against the Poor
Law, the Means Test in the 1930s and who campaigned for woman’s suffrage
or against racism in the 1970s or war in the 1980s may have belonged to
different times, but they share common aims and motivation. The
fights and campaigns that they waged, gained us universal suffrage, a
welfare state and greater equality. In remembering these campaigners we
can begin to understand something of our city’s history and commemorate
the efforts of those who made history at the grass roots.
Ned Newitt
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