James
Thomas was born in Newport on 3rd October, 1874. An illegitimate child,
James was brought up by his widowed grandmother, Ann Thomas, who made
her living by taking in washing from the officers and crews of the
ships in Newport Docks.
At twelve years of age, Thomas left Angus Hill Board School and found
employment as an errand boy for a local chemist shop. Three years
later he became an engine cleaner on the Great
Western Railway. In 1892 he
passed his fireman's exams and began work at a colliery in the Sirhowy
Valley.
Thomas joined the Associated Society of
Railway Servants Union. He played an active role in union affairs
and eventually became a full-time organiser of the union. Thomas was
also involved in politics joining the newly formed Labour
Party and was elected as a councillor for Swindon.
In 1909 the Derby Trades Council became unhappy with the performance
of Richard Bell, the local Lib-Lab MP and in
1909 made it clear they would not support him in the next parliamentary
election. Bell decided to stand down and the local Labour
Party asked Jimmy Thomas to be their candidate. Thomas accepted
the offer and in his election address he called for an increase in
taxes on the rich and the abolition of the House
of Lords. In the 1910 General Election
Thomas received 10,239 votes, over 2,000 more than the nearest Conservative
Party candidate.
While in the House of Commons, Thomas retained
his position in the union and helped organise the strike of 1911.
The following year he was an important figure in the amalgamation
of several unions to form the National
Union of Railwaymen (NUR). In was elected General Secretary of
the NUR in 1917 and two years later led the successful railway strike
of 1919. When Ramsay MacDonald became
Prime Minister after the 1924 General Election,
he appointed Thomas as Secretary of State for the Colonies.
During the proposed General Strike in
1926 Thomas was asked by the Trade Union Congress
to help reach an agreement with the Conservative
Government and the mine-owners. According to Thomas they were
close to agreement when Stanley Baldwin
broke off negotiations. The reason for his action was that printers
at the Daily Mail had refused to print
a leading article attacking the proposed strike. The TUC negotiators
apologized for the printers' behaviour, but Baldwin refused to continue
with the talks and the General Strike
began the next day.
When the Labour Party returned to power
after the 1929 General Election, Thomas became
Lord Privy Seal in MacDonald's government. This coincided with a serious
economic depression and in 1931 Philip Snowden,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suggested that the Labour government
should introduce new measures including a reduction in unemployment
pay. Several ministers, including George
Lansbury, Arthur Henderson and Joseph
Clynes, refused to accept the cuts in benefits and resigned from
office.
Ramsay MacDonald was angry that his
Cabinet had voted against him and decided to resign. When he saw George
V that night, he was persuaded to head a new coalition government
that would include Conservative and
Liberal leaders as well as Labour
ministers. Most of the Labour Cabinet totally rejected the idea and
only three, Thomas, Philip Snowden and
John Sankey agreed to join the new government.
MacDonald was determined to continue and his National Government introduced
the measures that had been rejected by the previous Labour Cabinet.
Labour MPs were furious with what had happened and Thomas, Ramsay
MacDonald and Philip Snowden were
expelled from the Labour Party.
In October, MacDonald called an election. Thomas, who stood as a National
Labour candidate in Derby, won his seat
in the 1931 General Election and afterwards
served as Secretary for the Colonies in the government.
Thomas held his government post until May 1936, when he was accused
of leaking Budget secrets to his stockbroker son, Leslie Thomas, and
Alfred Cosher Bates, a wealthy businessman. In a Judicial Tribunal
set up by the government, Bates admitted giving Thomas £15,000
but claimed it was an advance for a proposed autobiography. This high
sum for an autobiography, not yet written, only increased suspicion
of the two men's relationship, and Thomas was forced to resign from
the government and House of Commons.
Thomas retired to his home, Millbury House, Ferring, where he wrote
his autobiography, My Story (1937).
Jimmy Thomas died on 21st January 1949.
(1)
Jimmy Thomas, election manifesto (1910)
We must end and not mend an assembly (House of Lords)
the majority of whose only qualification is the accident of birth.
You have to determine the question whether the People or the peers
shall rule; whether the bread of the poor or the land of the rich
shall be taxed. In short, whether the misery and degradation of thousands
of our more unfortunate citizens shall continue, or a genuine effort
made to alleviate their unhappy lot. Such is the issue that you will
be called upon to decide, and that your verdict will be on the side
of humanity against poverty is the sincere wish and belief of J. H.
Thomas.
(2)
Morgan Philips Price, My Three Revolutions
(1969)
Early
in the summer vacation (August 21st) the Labour Government resigned
and each Labour M.P. received a letter from the Prime Minister informing
him that he had felt constrained to form a National Government and
had secured the support of Mr Baldwin, the leader of the Opposition.
Some Conservative Members would be taken into the Government. Mr Snowden
and Mr J. H. Thomas had agreed to continue in their offices and it
was hoped that the Parliamentary Labour Party would agree with what
had been done. At the same time a message arrived summoning all Labour
M.P.s
to attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Party in London. Incredibly,
I was playing cricket when it arrived. I rushed up to
London at once. I found Members delighted that Ramsay Macdonald, Philip
Snowden and J. H. Thomas had severed themselves from us by their action.
We had got rid of the Right Wing without any effort on our part. No
one trusted Mr Thomas and Philip Snowden was recognized to be a nineteenth-century
Liberal with no longer any place amongst us. State action to remedy
the economic crisis was anathema to him. As for Ramsay Macdonald,
he was obviously losing his grip on affairs. He had no background
of knowledge of economic and financial questions and was hopelessly
at sea in a crisis like this. But many, if not most, of the Labour
M.P.s thought that at an election we should win hands down. I was
not so optimistic and wrote in a memorandum which I published in a
local paper in my constituency at the time. "The country is thoroughly
frightened and our Party has not proved that it has an alternative
policy or the courage to put one through if it had one."
(3)
Jimmy Thomas, resignation statement (20th May, 1936)
You will know that my only object in joining a National Government
was because I felt sure that the coming together of all political
parties - regardless of past differences - was the only chance of
pulling this country through its crisis. Today I hold that opinion
even more firmly than before, but, as far as I myself am concerned,
I feel that instead of being a source of strength to your Cabinet
I shall merely be a drag on it and not in position to pull my full
weight. I have come to my decision because the way in which my name
and private affairs have been bandied about renders my continuation
as a member of the Government impossible.
(4)
Henry
(Chips) Channon,
diary entry (9th December, 1935)
We dined with Victor Cazalet in a private room at the
House of Commons. We talked until 10.30 and then I went into the Chamber,
where J. H. Thomas was ragging the Labour Opposition, and a sorry
sight it was to watch them wincing under the gruelling. J. H. Thomas
knows them so well, speaks their language, and is aware of their tricks
and he went for them. The Socialist Opposition seem appalling; uneducated,
narrow and unattractive, and the Independent Labour Party, headed
by Maxton, are a quartet of loquacious jokers - a super-night at the
House.
(5)
Jimmy Thomas, resignation speech in the House of Commons (11th June,
1936)
I do not intend to go into details: I must let those who read
all the evidence and the report judge for themselves. I am, however,
entitled to say to the House that I never consciously gave a Budget
secret away. That I repeat, in spite of the Tribunal's findings. To
attempt to deal in detail with some of my private affairs would be
painful to me as it would be unfair to the House.
(6)
Henry
(Chips) Channon,
diary entry (11th June, 1936)
I reached the Chamber at 3 p.m. and found it expectant
and nervous. At 3.30 J. H. Thomas entered, sad and aged, but sunburnt
still. He sat immediately
below the gangway on an aisle seat. Very soon took place one of the
most poignant scenes the House has ever witnessed, when the Speaker
quietly said 'Mr Thomas' and the poor man rose. He read a written
statement which was simple and rather heartrending. He accepted the
findings of the tribunal, but declared that he had never consciously
betrayed a budget or any other secret. He was leaving the "Ouse'
after twenty-seven years in its midst. He had now only his wife who
still trusted him and loved him. He hoped no other member would ever
be in a situation as cruel, as terrible as the one he today found
himself in. Then he sat down for only a second, and there was a loud
murmur of pity and suppressed admiration through the House. There
was scarcely a dry eye. Mr Baldwin sat with his head in his hands,
as he often does, Winston Churchill wiped away his tears. Thomas then
rose again and slowly made his way out, not forgetting to turn and
bow, for the last time, to the Speaker.
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