Frederick
William Jowett,
the son of a textile worker, was born in Bradford
on 31st January, 1864. Fred received little formal education and at
the age of eight was working at the local textile mill. On a Sunday
his father, Nathaniel Jowett, would take his son out for long walks.
A staunch radical, he took this opportunity to teach his son about
politics.
In 1886 Jowett was promoted to overlooker and
after attending evening classes in weaving and design at Bradford
Technical College, was employed as a manager at the mill.
As a young man Jowett read the works of William
Morris and in 1886 he joined the Socialist
League. This organisation ceased to exist after 1889 and so Jowett
became involved with the Bradford Labour Union, a group formed to
support strikers at the Manningham Mills in Bradford.
Jowett was a Christian Socialist and
was furious when local churchman criticised the strikers. Jowett responded
by helping to form a Labour Church in the
town.
In 1892 Jowett became the first socialist to be elected to Bradford
City Council. A few months later Jowett founded a branch of the Independent
Labour Party in Bradford. As a member
of the council Jowett instigated several important reforms that were
eventually imitated by other authorities. In 1904 Bradford
became the first local authority in Britain to provide free school
meals. Another successful campaign was the clearing of a slum area
and replacing it with new houses. Jowett was also a supporter of reforming
the 1834 Poor Law. He was elected as a
Poor Law Guardian and attempted to improve the quality of the food
given to the children in the Bradford Workhouse.
In the 1900 General Election Jowett was the
Independent Labour Party candidate in West Bradford. His strong opposition
to the Boer
War
probably cost him the election as he only lost by 41 votes.
With the
Boer
War
over, Jowett comfortably won the seat in the 1906
General Election. In the House of Commons
Jowett attempted to persuade the government to introduce legislation
that he had pioneered in Bradford such
as a school meals programme. While Jowett supported David
Lloyd George in his attempts to introduce Old
Age Pensions in 1908. However, he criticised the inadequate sums
involved and the use of the Means Test. During this period Jowett
established himself as one of the leading left-wing figures in the
House of Commons and in 1909 was elected
Chairman of the Independent Labour Party.
Jowett was re-elected in the 1910 General Election.
In the Socialist
Review,
a journal edited by John Bruce Glasier,
Jowett suggested a new system of government. He argued that the Cabinet
system should be abolished and replaced with committees representing
all political parties. Jowett believed this would give more power
to individual MPs. This proposal was unpopular with the leaders who
felt it would undermine their power if the Labour
Party formed the next government. This controversy brought Jowett
into conflict with the party leader, Ramsay
MacDonald. In an attempt to maintain party unity, Jowett agreed
to resign as party Chairman.
Like many socialists Jowett opposed Britain's involvement in the First
World War. He supported those who resisted conscription and demanded
heavy taxation on wartime profits. Jowett also called on the British
government to assume total control of the economy during the conflict.
In the 1918 General Election all those Labour
MPs who opposed the war, including Jowett, Ramsay
MacDonald, George Lansbury and Philip
Snowden lost their seats.
Out of the House of Commons,
Fred
Jowett represented the Labour Party at several
international conferences including the International Socialist Conference
in Switzerland in 1919 and the World Labour Conference in Poland in
1921.
In the 1922 General Election Jowlett was
elected for East Bradford. When Ramsay MacDonald
became Britain first Labour Prime Minister
in 1924, he appointed Jowett as his Commissioner of Works. One of
his major achievements as a minister was to obtain the money needed
to repair and modernize 60,000 government built houses.
Jowett was defeated in the 1924 General Election
and while out of the House of Commons took
the opportunity to consider the future policies of the Independent
Labour Party. In 1926 he produced a report Socialism
in Our Time which argued for a national minimum income
with full socialism as a long-term objective. Ramsay
MacDonald refused to endorse the report and now out of line with
the ILP decided to resign from the party.
Jowett
returned to the House of Commons after
the 1929 General Election but MacDonald did
not offer him a place in his government. Jowett opposed the formation
of the National Government and as a result lost his seat in the 1931
General Election. The following year Jowett and the Independent
Labour Party disaffiliated from the Labour
Party.
The Independent Labour Party opposed Britain's
involvement in the Second World War. He was very critical of the way
the government ran the country during the conflict. Jowett claimed
that the government's Equality of Sacrifice policy was just propaganda
and pointed out that workers' wages were falling well behind increasing
prices. Frederick Jowett died during the war
on 1st February, 1944.
(1)
Frederick Jowett, What Made Me a Socialist (1925)
My
mother came from Derbyshire. Occasionally she would reveal incidents
of her early life in my hearing, and they sank deeply into my mind,
although she was quite unaware of the fact. It seemed natural that
she should tell me also of Chartist meetings, although she was so
young at the time and so little that for safety against the crowd
she crept under the wagon from which the speeches were delivered.
Early impressions of this sort must surely have made me a potential
democrat in my very early years.
(2)
In the Labour Leader, Katharine Glasier
described meeting Fred Jowett as a young man (May, 1906).
Fred
Jowett rose from his chair to greet me. This quiet-voiced, slightly-built,
demurely-dressed (grey and black tie, starched collar), pale young
man, with smooth black hair, correctly parted. Why - I told myself
- he might have been a college student preparing for the Nonconformist
ministry!
(3)
Fenner Brockway, a member of the Independent
Labour Party, later wrote about Jowett's achievements in Bradford.
In
the winter of 1903-1904, following the Boer War, there was a severe
depression in Bradford, and destitution was widespread. The school
teachers in the poorer districts were in despair as they faced children
pinched and emaciated through want of food. They asked the Education
Committee to receive a deputation, and one after another told of the
sorrowful condition of those in their charge. Moved by these stories,
it was agreed, on the initiative of Jowett to appoint a Poor Children's
special sub-committee with power to investigate and act. This investigation
revealed 2,574 cases of underfed children in the schools. Of these
329 were stated to attend school without breakfasts. The Poor Children's
sub-committee, impressed by the evidence of hunger, decided to provide
school meals. This was the first decision by any local authority in
Britain to assume public responsibility for feeding school children.
Though he probably did not realise it at the time, this young Bradford
Councillor was starting a movement destined to give food and health
to millions. His action was hailed by Socialists throughout the country
as a precedent and triumph. Keir Hardie sent him a prophetic message
of congratulation, expressing the opinion that the Bradford decision
would be historic, foreshadowing a time when the provision of school
meals would pass into the common life of the people.
(4)
In 1904 Fred Jowett persuaded Bradford Council to become the first
in the country to assume responsibility for feeding school children.
He explained in the council chamber why this measure was necessary.
That
it is the duty of the community to see that all children are sufficiently
fed. That voluntary effort is not able to feed children who are regularly
or temporarily in need of food. That when children attend school insufficiently
fed, it shall be the duty of the education Committee, acting on information
supplied by the teachers, to feed these children.
It is not until the hunger-pangs are removed that people are able
to think of something higher and to respond to the best impulses and
appeals. Education on an empty stomach is a waste of money.
(5)
The Daily News (20th April, 1911)
Mr.
Jowett, the Labour Member, in a delightful little speech, very simple
and human, introduced a Bill to enable local authorities to provide
feeding for school children during holidays. Mr. Jowett showed a chart
which illustrated how the weight of children at Bradford increases
during term, but dwindles during holidays - a pathetic comment upon
home life, when the wage fund only furnishes 1s. 9d. a week for food
per child.
