John Potts (British politician): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox MP▼

'''John Samuel Potts''' (12 August 1861 – 28 April 1938) was a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician in the [[United Kingdom]] who served a [[Member of Parliament]] (MP) for twelve years between 1922 and 1938.▼

Born in [[Bolton]], [[Lancashire]], Potts had started work at Durham Colliery at the age of eleven. He was a checkweighman at the Hemsworth Colliery, [[Yorkshire]], for 25 years.<ref name= "WDP"> {{cite news |title=DEATH OF LABOUR M.P. FOR BARNSLEY |work=Western Daily Press |date=29 April 1938 |accessdate=3 November 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000513/19380429/074/0008| via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|subscription=yes}}</ref> At the [[Barnsley by-election, 1897|Barnsley by-election of 1897]] Potts supported the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]-candidate [[Sir Joseph Walton, 1st Baronet|Joseph Walton]]. While chairing a Liberal election meeting during this by-election, said in the presence of Walton that he would favour a labour party at a time when state payment of MPs, and of official election expenses would enable working men to be maintained in Parliament. But in the mean time, "the Liberal party was the working man’s only hope".<ref name="rubinstein">David Rubinstein, "[http://www.whatnextjournal.org.uk/Pages/History/Barnsley.html The Independent Labour Party and the Yorkshire Miners: The Barnsley By-Election of 1897]", ''What Next?''; earlier published in ''[[International Review of Social History]]'', Vol.23, 1978.</ref> In 1905, Potts switched sides, and started working with the [[Independent Labour Party]] against Walton, and the leadership of the [[Yorkshire Miners' Association]] (YMA).<ref name="rubinstein" /> Ten years later Potts was elected as treasurer of the YMA,<ref name= "YPLI"> {{cite news |title=YORKSHIRE MINERS' TREASURER |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=30 August 1915 |accessdate=3 November 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19150830/138/0007| via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|subscription=yes}}</ref> and kept this position until he was elected as MP for [[Barnsley (UK Parliament constituency)|Barnsley]] at the [[United Kingdom general election, 1922|1922 general election]].<ref name= "HDM"> {{cite news |title=YORKSHIRE MINERS' M.P. DEAD |work=Hull Daily Mail |date=28 April 1938 |accessdate=3 November 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19380428/005/0001| via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|subscription=yes}}</ref> Potts held the seat at three further elections in the 1920s. When Labour split at the [[United Kingdom general election, 1931|1931 general election]] over [[Ramsay MacDonald]]'s formation of a [[National Government 1931-1935|National Government]], he narrowly lost his seat to the [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Liberal]] candidate [[Richard John Soper]].▼

Potts was comfortably re-elected at the [[United Kingdom general election, 1935|1935 general election]], but died in office in 1938, in [[Barnsley]], aged 76. His illness and death have been connected with the shock he received when the [[Wharncliffe Woodmoor Pit Disaster]] occurred two years earlier. His home was in the lane which led to the colliery.<ref name= "WDP"/>▼