Jack Lawson was born in the port town of Whitehaven, Cumberland, and grew up in the nearby village of Kells.
44 Facts About Jack Lawson
1.
2.
Jack Lawson's father John Lawson was a sailor and miner who had begun working in a colliery by the age of nine, sailed round the world by eleven, and later served in the Royal Naval Reserve.
3.
At the age of three, Jack Lawson was sent to the local National School, Glass House School.
4.
Outside of school, Jack Lawson's time was consumed with chores and he often looked after his youngest brother, Will, born in 1890.
5.
Jack Lawson eagerly began work in the colliery the day after he turned twelve.
6.
Jack Lawson started as a trapper, opening and shutting doors for the drivers, working a ten-hour day.
7.
Jack Lawson began attending union meetings, including the annual Durham Miners' Gala, where in later years he met the likes of Will Crooks, Ellen Wilkinson, Ernest Bevin and George Lansbury.
8.
Jack Lawson had read nothing of economics or politics yet, but had developed a strong sense of injustice, firmly believing that manual workers were under-paid and under-valued.
9.
Jack Lawson joined the Methodist Society, and found his ideas more accepted there.
10.
In 1904, Jack Lawson joined the newly founded branch of the Independent Labour Party at Boldon.
11.
Jack Lawson was invited to be a speaker, but initially refused, unsure of his own ability.
12.
Jack Lawson discovered a socialist bookshop in Newcastle, where he met many like-minded people, and read books on economics and society, including those of Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin.
13.
Jack Lawson became a hewer that year, working at the coal-face, and within a few months was elected as an assistant checkweighman.
14.
Jack Lawson had no ambition for work beyond being a hewer, but he did want to continue his education.
15.
Jack Lawson began teaching boys who worked at the colliery and then helped to set up a school for adults in two disused colliery houses.
16.
In 1905 Jack Lawson became an active speaker for the ILP, expounding socialism and the Labour Representation Committee to the miners of Durham, who had traditionally supported the Liberal Party.
17.
Later that year, Jack Lawson joined a correspondence class with Ruskin College, Oxford.
18.
Jack Lawson's wife moved to Oxford with him, finding work and accommodation as a servant in a series of homes.
19.
Jack Lawson was grateful but refused, not wanting a professional career; three months later, he returned to Boldon.
20.
Jack Lawson became well known around the county, as a speaker for both the ILP and the union.
21.
Jack Lawson was a negotiator for his union lodge and a delegate to the Miner's Council at Durham.
22.
Jack Lawson lost by less than 100 votes and died within a week.
23.
The Jack Lawson's first daughter, Irene, was born later that year.
24.
Jack Lawson was reluctant to leave manual work, but allowed his name to go forward.
25.
Two years after moving there, Jack Lawson was elected to the County Council for the Chester-le-Street division.
26.
Jack Lawson wrote a pamphlet campaigning for minimum wage for miners and was a leading figure in Durham during the miners' strike of 1912 on this issue.
27.
When war broke out in 1914, Will Jack Lawson became an officer in the Durham Light Infantry.
28.
Jack Lawson followed his example, volunteering for service; experienced with horses, he was assigned as a driver with the Royal Field Artillery, serving in France.
29.
Will Jack Lawson was sent to Ypres in January 1915, and died in battle thirteen months later on 27 March 1916.
30.
Later in 1919, John Taylor, Labour MP for Chester-le-Street since 1906 and a friend of Jack Lawson's, resigned his seat due to ill health.
31.
Jack Lawson was sponsored by the Durham Miner's Association and won with a majority of eleven thousand, entering the House of Commons in November 1919.
32.
Jack Lawson worked alongside Clement Attlee, and the two came to enjoy a very firm friendship and mutual admiration.
33.
Jack Lawson served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour in the 1929 Labour government, but refused MacDonald's invitation to join the National Government following the split in 1931.
34.
The 1931 general election was disastrous for Labour, and Jack Lawson was one of only two Durham Labour MPs to keep their seats, out of seventeen who won there in the 1929 election.
35.
Jack Lawson published his autobiography, A Man's Life, in 1932, intended as a record of the family life of miners.
36.
Jack Lawson followed this with a novel about miners, Under the Wheels, and biographies of Peter Lee and Herbert Smith.
37.
Jack Lawson later refused the offer of a position in government to continue his work in civil defence.
38.
Jack Lawson's third daughter, Alma, was a gunner in the ATS; his son Clive, born in 1932, was killed aged 9 by a bomb on 1 May 1942.
39.
Jack Lawson oversaw planning for post-war operations, including the occupation of Germany, and for the mass demobilisation, ensuring it happened quickly and smoothly.
40.
Jack Lawson served as one of Attlee's key allies in the Cabinet, particularly during early conflicts with Herbert Morrison.
41.
Jack Lawson resigned from parliament in December 1949 on appointment as vice-chairman of the National Parks Commission, he was made a hereditary peer as Baron Lawson, of Beamish in the County of Durham, in March 1950.
42.
Jack Lawson attended the House of Lords but did not take a front-bench position.
43.
Jack Lawson retired as Lord Lieutenant in 1958 and died in 1965, at the age of 83.
44.
Jack Lawson was for years on friendly terms with the historian Sir Arthur Bryant, despite the latter's more right-wing outlook.