Malvern Family History Society

From workhouse to Westminster – Eddie Thomas – Winter 2008

Following the death of my great grandfather, my great grandmother married the chap referred to in this obituary. Although he's not a blood relative, I'm still immensely proud of the family connection. The following is from the Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express - 21 September 1929.

MR W GILLIS JP - Former Penistone MP
A ROUGH DIAMOND

Mr W Gillis JP of Hoyland Common, who won the Penistone seat in the by-election caused by the retirement of Mr – afterwards Lord – Arnold in 1921, and held it till the next General Election for the Labour Party, died in the Beckett Hospital, Barnsley, on Wednesday night at the age of 72.

Among the many romantic careers of Labour leaders, Mr Gillis’s story must take a notable place. He was born at sea and some of his early life was spent in a Poor Law institution. But grit and shrewdness turned the pauper boy into one of the most respected of South Yorkshire’s trade union stalwarts and eventually took him to Westminster and now makes his passing a matter of widespread regret throughout South Yorkshire.

His father was a naval petty officer, and Mr Gillis’s birth took place at a time when men of that rank were allowed to take their wives to sea with them. Mr Gillis was only a few months old when his father died while the ship was in the Black Sea. That was just after the Crimean War. Mother and son had to go back to England, and poverty took them to a Poor Law institution in Norfolk. When his mother remarried Mr Gillis started work on a farm, at the age of seven, for a penny a day. And then began his trade union career. Three ha’pence of the first sixpence he amassed went to the farm labourer’s Union founded by John Arch. He became a shepherd’s boy later, but when his mother died he went to Sheffield and started a new phase of life. His next job was greasing engines for the Midland Railway Company. And all this before he was fourteen.

But at that age he entered the employment of Newton Chambers and Company at their Tankersley pit, and the boy’s roving ceased. As he grew, his interest in trade unionism became intense and ultimately he became a checkweighman at the Rockingham Colliery, Hoyland. He soon entered public life and was the first Labour member returned to the Hoyland Nether Urban Council, and he was its chairman in 1921, when he was adopted as the Penistone Division’s first Labour candidate on the retirement for health reasons of Mr Sydney Arnold, the sitting Independent Liberal Member. At that time Mr Gillis was already an Alderman of the West Riding County Council, to which body he was returned in 1913. He was the district’s first Labour representative at Wakefield.
In the 1921 election which returned Mr Gillis to Parliament, the figures were:

                           W Gillis (Labour) 8,560
                           W M R Pringle (Ind Liberal) 7,984
                           Sir James Hinchliffe (Coalition Lib) 7,123
                           Labour majority 576

Mr Gillis said after the declaration of the poll that it was ‘the electors’ commonsense and the strenuous efforts of the Labour workers that had won the election. Mr Gillis held the seat only till the following year, however, when he was defeated in a three-cornered contest by Mr Pringle, with Colonel Hodgkinson the unsuccessful Conservative candidate. Mr Gillis’s work, however, led up to the Labour successes that were to come in future years, reaching their climax in May this year with Mr Rennie Smith’s enormous majority. Mr Gillis was, among other things, first president of the branch of the ILP that was founded at Hoyland, and he strongly supported that branch of the Labour movement.

Mr Gillis’s work since his short term of Parliamentary office has been mainly done at Barnsley, at the headquarters of the YMA. He had a good deal to do during the following years as organiser and in negotiations; he was always a ‘canny’ man to deal with, and he had the confidence of the men.

He was a member of the Hoyland UDC for 19 years, and a magistrate for nine years, sitting on the Barnsley West Riding Bench. He was also for many years a member, latterly an alderman, of the West Riding County Council. He was twice married and leaves a widow and a grown-up family. One son was wounded in the Great War and died last year. Another is Mr Charles Gillis, a Penistone licensed victualler.

Mr Gillis had been unwell since the beginning of the year. He had a serious turn a fortnight ago and was removed to hospital for an operation.

Soon after he came to Hoyland Common he joined the Salvation Army and at that time he could neither read nor write, but the present schoolmaster, Mr J T W Savage, took an interest in him and gave him his first lesson at the night school, where Mr Gillis was an apt and earnest student. The late Mr Walter Crossland, who was then a teacher, also did much to assist his education. He took a keen interest in music and to the late Mr Joseph Boothroyd he owed much, for he was taught to play the cornet and became bandmaster of the Salvation Army Band.

Through his association with the ‘Army’ he rapidly developed into a platform speaker and was in great demand touring the country as ‘Man Friday’, a name that clung to him up to his death, and many have wondered how he came to be called by that name. It arose through his refusal to work on a Friday. That was in the days before he found the Salvation Army. Altogether he worked at the Tankersley and Rockingham Collieries for 39 years, and for 19 years he was checkweighman at the latter colliery and it speaks well for the respect the men had for him that when he became MP he was presented with a gold watch and chain by the workmen and officials of the colliery.

He was also held in the high esteem by the Railway Servants Orphanage for whom he spoke at the annual gathering for 19 successive years, and on his election to Parliament they presented him with a gold medal.

Twenty-two years ago he was elected the first Labour member on the Hoyland Urban District Council, and six years later he was elected a member of the West Riding County Council. He was a member of the Executive of the Yorkshire Miners Association and a member of the Minimum Wage Board. He claimed to be the one who first suggested it, and it came about through Mr Gillis and another man having only five shillings each to draw for six days’ work one week before Christmas. He was appointed to the Commission of the Peace for the West Riding in 1920, and was regular in attendance on the Bench at Barnsley.

He lost his seat in Parliament in the General Election of 1922, the late Mr W M Pringle defeating him. Mr Gillis was most entertaining in describing his experiences in Parliament, and one of his most cherished memories was the day when he had an audience with the Queen.

Since leaving Parliament he has been attached to the headquarters of the Yorkshire Miners’ Association at Barnsley and his work had largely to do with disputes. He was also a splendid organiser. Gifted with a rich fund of humour he was never at a loss for an apt phrase that would relieve an awkward situation. Although he was always insistent on getting the utmost of what he considered justice, for the men, there was no colliery owner or manager in Yorkshire who bore him the slightest ill-will.

He was a keen lover of sport and rarely missed a football match at Barnsley. He was passionately fond of cricket and as vice-president of the Tankersley United CC his services were much valued. Very frequently he was with the team in their away matches.

Of late years he has been connected with the United Methodist Church, doing work as a local preacher and up to very recently he was a member of the choir. The interment takes place on Monday, and will be preceded by a service in the United Methodist Church.