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George Hicks | |
|---|---|
 George Hicks in 1927 by Lafayette | |
| Member of Parliament forWoolwich East | |
| In office 15 April 1931 – 3 February 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Snell |
| Succeeded by | Ernest Bevin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1879-05-13)13 May 1879 |
| Died | 19 July 1954(1954-07-19) (aged 75) |
Ernest George Hicks[1] (13 May 1879 – 19 July 1954) was a British trades unionist andLabour Party politician.
Hicks was born in 1879 inVernhams Dean,Hampshire. Along with fellowbricklayersJack Fitzgerald andF. K. Cadman, he was one of the founding members of theSocialist Party of Great Britain in June 1904. Hicks resigned on 20 August 1904, rejoining on 14 December 1908 and finally leaving around 1910. He does not seem to have played an active part in the life of the Party, but after leaving it went on to be a prominent trade union leader in the bricklayers' union.[2]
Hicks first came to prominence during thegreat labour unrest just before theFirst World War, particularly in the London building trades lockout of 1914. He was a well-known syndicalist agitator at this time, being linked withTom Mann’sIndustrial Syndicalist Education League and its effective successor the Industrial Democracy League.
In 1912, he became National Organiser of theOperative Bricklayers' Society, serving as its General Secretary from 1919 to 1921. Subsequently he was General Secretary ofAmalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers (the successor to the OBS) from 1921 to 1941. Hicks was a member of General Council of theTUC from 1921 to 1941, during the early to mid-1920s gaining a reputation as a Left (e.g., writing for theCommunist-controlledSunday Worker, and helping organise the1926 General Strike). This had been largely lost by the time he served as the TUC President in 1927–28. Around this time he was also a member of the General Council of theInternational Federation of Trade Unions.
Hicks wrote the foreword for the 1927 edition ofThe Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. He was present at the 1931 Jubilee meeting of theLabour-affiliatedSDF atBristol where he made the main speech (later published as a pamphletPoverty from Plenty).
In a 1931 by-election, Hicks was elected LabourMember of Parliament (MP) forWoolwich East, representing that constituency until 1950. He was Parliamentary Secretary to theMinister of Works in the wartime coalition government from 1941 to 1945; a fellow ex-member of the SPGB,Valentine McEntee, was his parliamentary private secretary. He died in 1954, aged 75.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWoolwich East 1931–1950 | Succeeded by |
| Trade union offices | ||
| Preceded by | General Secretary of theOperative Bricklayers' Society 1919–1921 | Succeeded by Position abolished |
| Preceded by New position | General Secretary of theAmalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers 1921–1941 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Trades Union Congress representative to theAmerican Federation of Labour 1926 With:John Bromley | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Trades Union Congress 1927 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Trades Councils' Joint Consultative Committee 1934 – 1937 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
