Constituency : Bethnal Green North East 1885-95
George took the new seat of Bethnal Green North East as a Liberal-Labour candidate. He failed in a criminal libel action against a Tory agent who accused him of mishandling a union special fund.
George was a builder's son from Somerset. He was educated at a Church of England school then started work as a bricklayer for his father. Growing tired of this he took an apprenticeship as a shoemaker. He got involved in the tail end of the Chartist movement in 1848 when he was 15. He became a Methodist lay preacher and an advocate of temperance. He moved to London in 1854 and was forced back to bricklaying for lack of opportunities. He started attending political meetings and met Marx and Bradlaugh. He joined the Operative Bricklayers Society agitating for a nine hour day and was blacklisted by employers. In 1861 he was appointed to the executive of the London Trades Council. In 1865 he became secretary of the Reform League and was active in the agitation for the Second Reform Act though he was dissatisfied that the result fell short of universal suffrage. Nevertheless he adnministered a special fund to mobilise working class voters for the Liberals in working class constituencies. Between 1868 and 1874 he was secretary of the Representative Reform Association which advocated proportional representation.He became secretary of the TUC in 1871. He stood for Aylesbury in 1868 and 1874 and in by-elections at Norwich in 1871 and Stafford in 1881.
George supported female suffrage, secular education and disestablishment of the church
George helped to pass the Merchant Shipping Act in 1894.
George was defeated in 1895.
George suffered poor health in later years. The TUC raised a testimonial to buy him an annuity.
George relied on journalism for his income and wrote some books on labour matters.
He died in 1911 aged 76.
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