1906-1983
This account is based on the history compiled and published by Colin Brierley in 1983
Write a short article on your thoughts on the folding up of the old Gorton Constituency Party. An easy task? What impression does one retain after half a life time in an organisation ?
What I remember most were the great characters of the party many of whom were personal friends as well as colleagues. Many of them who are dead, people like Phil Armstrong, who gave his life for the movement as surely as if he had been killed at the barricades, that great personality Charlie Clarkson and my two close friends Harold Conway and Bill Higgins and of course Zilli.
I remember the early suspicions and the gradually welding of the parts into a cohesive whole until in 1959 we retained the seat (with an increased majority) on sheer hard work.
The whole of the history of this Gorton C.L.P. has been dominated by the constant struggle for money, in the early days the jumble sales, the hot pot suppers and the football sweeps. In the later years we became obsessed with beer sales and one armed bandits.
The heart searching that went on when Audenshaw and Denton became part of Tameside and the local parties became part of the District.
That noisy busy by-election when Ken Marks returned the seat.
Half a life time of memories flood back, to you all my thanks for your comradeship and the pleasure of having worked with you. On a personal note my thanks to my wife who put up with the fact that I was more out than in, and was great on telephone queries especially at election-times.
Eric McQueen
Constituency Secretary/Agent
22 April 1983
Born Muirkirk, Ayrshire 29/10/1855; President British Steel Smelters, Mill Iron, Tinplatye and Kindred Trades Association; President Trades Congress 1892; President Labour Representation Committee (twice) Manchester City Councillor 1898/1901; Minister for Labour 1916/17; Minister of Pensions 1917/19
John Thomas Brotherton on the right (with cap) and his brother George Francis Brotherton (with the reins) campaigning in the General Election 1906 or 1910. Courtesy of Cllr Barry Brotherton.
Born Northern Ireland 21/4/1881 Assistant General Secretary National Union of Vehicle Builders; Manchester City Councillor 1919-25
lst. Baron of Barlaston (created 1942) Colonel (G.S.); D.L.; J.P. (Staffs)
P.C. (1924); D.S.O. (1915); late Commander R.N.A.S.;
Born: 16th March 1872;
Assistant Constructor Portsmouth Dockyard 1895-1896;
Naval Architect Elswick Shipyard 1896-1900;
Captain, Elswick Battery South Africa 1900-1-901 (medal & Three Clasps)
Resident Magistrate, Ermalo, Transvaal 1902-1904;
Hon. Sec. of the Wm.Salt Archaeological Society;
President of the English League for the Taxation of Land Values;
Served European War 1914-1916 Antwerp, France, Dardanelles, East Africa. (Wounded D.S.O. Despatches twice);
Liberal M.P. Newcastle-Under-Lyme 1906-1918;
Joined Labour Party after World War 1;
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1924;
Chairman, Committee on House of Commons Records 1929;
Vice Chairman of the Labour Party 1921-1924;
Mayor of Newcastle-Under-Lyme 1930-1932;
Minister for the Air Force Coalition Government of World War 11.
Born Sowerby Bridge
Secretary Cotton Trades and Labour Council
President, Cotton Spinners' Association
Labour Agent for Gorton
Manchester City Councillor 1928-1945, Alderman 1945-61
Born Kobe Japan
Educated: Finland, Sweden, France, England & US
Royal Flying Corps and intelligence officer Siberia 1914-1918
Author, lecturer and Journalist who spoke 11 languages
Member of League of Nations Secretariat 1919-38
Ministry of Information 1939-45
MP for Gateshead 1945-50
Expelled from Labour Party 1949 for opposition to the establishment of NATO. Stood as Independent Labour in Gateshead 1950, and readmitted to Labour Party 1952
Suspended from the party 1961
Author of The Dying Peace (1933), Abyssinia (1935), Inquest on Peace (1935) and The Road to War (1937), Why the League Has Failed (1938) and Why We Are Losing the Peace (1938), Appeasement and Armageddon (1939), The Mirror of the Past (1944), Mirror to the Present (1947), I Choose Peace (1949), The League Of Nations To-day (1967), Britain and the European Economic Community (1967)
Manchester School Teacher 1946-1967; Headmaster Clough Top School for Boys 1964-1967
Councillor Denton UDC
Chairman Denton U.D.C.
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Anthony Crosland 1969-1970 also to Roy Hattersley 1974-1975 and the Rt. Hon. Harold Wilson 1975;
Opposition Whip 1971 1972;
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State D.o.E.1975-1979;
Member: House of Commons Select Committee for Education and Science 1968-1970;
Select Committee on Expenditure 1974-1975;
Executive Committee C.P.A. 1972-1975;
Executive Committee U.K. Bri. I.P.U. 1981;
Chairman Parliamentary Labour Party Education Group 1972-1975
N.W. Regional Group 1974;
Member North Atlantic Assembly 1974-1975 & 1979.
Full election results since 1832 are available on the Manchester City Council site.
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Ellen Wilkinson was a councillor for Gorton South from 1923 until 1926