1620 John Ward

Constituency : Stoke-upon-Trent  1906-29

John  took  Stoke-upon-Trent  from  the  Tories  as  a  Liberal-Labour  candidate  sponsored  by  the  North  Staffordshire  Trades  Council.

John  was  a  plasterer's  son  from  Weybridge. He  had  no  real  education  and  worked  as  a  navvy  for  a  number  of  years, educating  himself  as  he  went. He  joined  the  army  in  1885  and  served  in  the  Sudan. The  following  year  he  joined  the  Social  Democratic  Federation  and  became  a  close  friend  of  John  Burns . He  was  fined  for  taking  part  in  the  protest  meeting  in  Trafalgar  Square  organised  by  the  SDF  that  year. In  1889  John  founded  the  Navvy's, Bricklayers'  Labourers and  General  Labourers Union  and  became  its  general  secretary. In  1901  he  was  elected  to  the  management  committee  of  the  General  Federation  of  Trade  Unions, becoming  its  treasurer  from  1913. He  stood  for  the  SDF  in  local  elections. In  1900  he  switched  to  the  more  moderate  National  Democratic  League. He  refused  to  sign  the  LRC  constitution  in  1903.

As  John  was  neither  a  miner  nor  a  potter  he  was  able  to  rise  above  the  mutual  jealousies  within  the  local  party.

John  rejoined  the  army  in  1914  and  raised  five  labour  battalions  for  which  he  was  promoted  to  lieutenant-colonel. He  served  in  France  then  the  Far  East, surviving  a shipwreck  on  the  way  there. In  1918  he  went  to  Siberia  to  help  Admiral  Kolchak  against  the  Bolsheviks. He  witnessed  atrocities  by  the  latter  that  confirmed  his  anti-socialism.  He  wrote  a  book  With  the  Diehards  in  Siberia    and  became  secretary  of  the  Russian  Relief  and  Reconstruction  Fund  helping  victims  of  the  Bolsheviks.

Although  still  overseas  during  the  1918  election, John  received  the  coupon  as  a  Coaltion  Liberal  and  was  unopposed. He  was  comfortably  returned  against  Labour  in  1922  but  it  was  much  tighter  in  1923  when  his  majority  was  reduced  to  617. In  1924  he  stood  as  a  Constitutionalist  although  the Tories  hadn't  opposed  him  since  1910   and  was  returned  more  comfortably. He  took  the  Liberal  whip  in  Parliament.

In  1929  John  was  soundly  defeated  by  the  unlikely  Labour  candidate  Lady  Cynthia  Mosley.

Now  suffering  from  heart  problems, John  decided  to  retire  from  politics. He  remained  active  in  the  British  Legion.

He  died  in  1934  aged   68.