Benjamin
Pickard, the son of Thomas Pickard, a miner, was born in Kippax near
Leeds 1842. Educated at Kippax Grammar School
until he was twelve years old when he left to become a miner. Brought
up as a Wesleyan he was a teetotaler
and supporter of the Temperance Society.
After working in various pits in the Leeds
area, in 1881 he became Secretary of the Yorkshire Miners Association.
In the summer of 1888 the price of coal began to rise. All over Britain
miners began to talk about the need for a pay increase. When colliery
owners rejected the claims of the Yorkshire Miners' Association, Pickard,
sent out a circular inviting all miners "to attend a conference
for the purpose of considering the best means of securing a 10% advance
in wages and of trying to find common ground for action." The
Conference took place in Derby on 29th October,
1888 where the formation of a new national union was discussed but
no agreement was reached.
Ben Pickard called another conference
in Newport on 26th November 1889. Pickard selected Newport as it was
fiftieth anniversary of the Chartist Newport
Uprising. Those attending included James
Keir Hardie, Thomas Burt, Herbert
Smith, Sam Woods, Thomas
Ashton and Enoch Edwards. At the conference
it was decided to form the Miners' Federation
of Great Britain and Pickard was elected as its first president.
Pickard was a member of the Liberal Party,
Pickard was elected to the House of Commons
in the 1885 General Election. In Parliament
Pickard advocated the payment of MPs and the abolition of the House
of Lords. Pickard also supported Charles
Bradlaugh and campaign for an Affirmation Bill. Benjamin Pickard
held the Normanton seat until his death on 3rd February 1904.
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