Constituency : Houghton-le-Spring 1885-6, Mid Durham 1890-1915
John took the new seat of Houghton-le-Spring as a Liberal-Labour candidate.
John was a miner from Hartlepool who'd also spent four years as a merchant seaman. He spent three years working in mines in the USA in the 1860s. In 1869 he was one of the founders of the Durham Miners Association which affected his employment prospects. He became a full-time organiser in 1878. He was a Primitive Methodist by conversion after a past of drinking and gambling..
John was very much a local politician. He led the north east miners in their resistance to the eight hour day. He was there to advance the interests of the "people among whom I was born and... among whom I have lived and struggled after a better life". He was pugnacious and sharp-tongued and a fierce opponent of socialism. He believed that if a man went to Parliament to advance working class interests alone it would put him "on a level with the landowner and aristocrat".
John was a temperance advocate and supported the closing of public houses on a Sunday.
John was defeated by the Conservatives in 1886 but returned for Mid-Durham in 1890.
John became General Secretary of the Durham Miners Association in 1896 and remained in the post until his death in 1915.
John defied the instruction from the Miners Federation of Great Britain to join the Labour party in 1909 and continued to sit as a Liberal. He had opposed the DMA joining the MFGB because he opposed government intervention on hours and wages which they supported.
In 1910 John published his autobiography "Memories of a labour leader".
He died in 1915 aged 77.
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