Full Name Thomas Proctor | Name Tom Proctor | |
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Born 1855 Nottingham, England, United Kingdom Died England, United Kingdom Occupation Trade unionist, politician | ||
Thomas Proctor (born 1855) was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician.
Born in Nottingham, Proctor left school at the age of twelve, then when he was fifteen travelled to France and joined Giuseppe Garibaldi's Army of the Vosges, fighting in the Franco-Prussian War. Although he was captured and taken prisoner, he was deported back to Britain on the grounds of his nationality and youth.
Proctor returned to Nottingham where he completed an apprenticeship in engineering, before travelling to Australia. He returned to Nottingham once more within a few years, and devoted much of his time to the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, becoming its chairman within a few years. He also joined the Social Democratic Federation.
In 1890, Proctor moved to Plymouth to work in the Devonport Dockyard. He had an immediate impact on local labour organisation, founding a trades council in 1892. Despite early disagreements over whether to support Liberal-Labour candidates or only independent labour ones, it gradually grew in strength and hosted the national Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1899.
Proctor had joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in the 1890s, and hosting the TUC enabled him to propose a special congress, early the following year, to discuss founding a new political party, independent of the Liberal Party, to contest local and national elections. This proposal gained support and, although Proctor had limited further involvement, the congress went ahead and founded the Labour Representation Committee (LRC).
In 1903, Proctor was adopted as the LRC candidate for the 1906 general election in Great Grimsby. Although he had no connection with the area, and remained resident in Plymouth, Proctor visited Grimsby frequently for a week at a time to campaign and give speeches, gradually attracting larger crowds to hear him. However, he ultimately took third place in the election, with 2,248 votes.
Proctor did not stand for Parliament again until the 1918 general election, when he was selected for Nottingham East by the renamed Labour Party, with the support of the ILP. He took second place, with 2,817 votes.