29 Facts About Jesse Collings

Jesse Collings's father was a bricklayer, who later established a small building firm.

Jesse Collings was educated at a Dame School and for a time at Church House School, Stoke, Plymouth.

Jesse Collings started work as a shop assistant aged 15 years, later becoming a clerk and a traveller for an ironmongery firm.

Jesse Collings came under the influence of George Dawson, worshipped, along with other prominent families, in Dawson's Church of the Saviour, and became an adherent of Dawson's doctrine of the "Civic Gospel".

Jesse Collings was a close friend of Joseph Chamberlain and supported the radical group around Chamberlain in developing local improvement schemes in Birmingham, parks, and what at the time was called "gas-and-water socialism".

Jesse Collings was responsible for free public libraries in Birmingham and was the original proponent of the Birmingham Art Gallery funded from the profits of the gas company.

Early on, Jesse Collings had shown an interest in education by helping to found the Devon and Exeter Boys Industrial School in 1862.

Jesse Collings visited America to study its education system and published An Outline of the American School System in 1868.

Jesse Collings called for Local Authorities to be obliged to set up sufficient schools to enable all children to attend; these schools should be inspected by the state and managed by local government; they should be free; and attendance should be compulsory.

Jesse Collings advocated the education of women, signing a petition seeking to award degrees to female students at the University of Cambridge in 1880.

Jesse Collings was a friend of Joseph Arch, the founder of the National Agricultural Labourers Union, who lived in Barford, Warwickshire, near Birmingham.

Jesse Collings believed that education was essential to improving the conditions of agricultural workers and that it needed to be free.

When Chamberlain became President of the Board of Trade, Jesse Collings acted as his unofficial advisor on agricultural matters affecting peasants in Britain and Ireland.

Jesse Collings advocated land reform through providing allotments and small holdings for the rural poor, landless peasants, and even the industrial poor.

Jesse Collings cited the Chartist settlement at Great Dodford as a successful example of what could be achieved.

Jesse Collings founded the Allotments Extension Association in 1883 to promote the formation of allotments and smallholdings.

In 1886, Jesse Collings' work defeated Lord Salisbury's Government, which lost the vote on the Queen's speech, when Jesse Collings moved his 'Small Holdings Amendment Act'.

Jesse Collings' work led to 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act and the 1919 Land Settlement Act.

Jesse Collings was Liberal Member of Parliament for Ipswich from 1880 until he was unseated on petition in April 1886, and then for Birmingham Bordesley from 1886 until 1918.

On Chamberlain's recommendation, Jesse Collings served in Gladstone's administration as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board in 1886, although at a reduced salary.

Jesse Collings joined the Liberal Unionist group set up by Chamberlain in 1886 as a result of the split with the Gladstonian Liberals over Ireland.

Jesse Collings served in Salisbury's government as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1895 to 1902.

Joseph Arch remained a Gladstonian Liberal and ensured that Jesse Collings was deposed from the Allotments Extension Association.

Jesse Collings later set up the Rural Labourers' League, which supported land reform and advocated tariffs on imported food to support the rural economy.

Jesse Collings proposed a system of vocational education through free schools in rural areas.

Jesse Collings was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Birmingham in 1911.

Jesse Collings published Land Reform in 1906 and in 1914 The Colonization of Rural Britain.

Jesse Collings published The Great War: Its Lessons and Warnings in 1915.

Jesse Collings continued to be active in promoting land reform until 1918, when he retired from Parliament on the abolition of his seat when he was then aged 87 and oldest member of the House.