William “Willie” LunnJP (1 November 1872 - 16 May 1942) was the Member of Parliament for Rothwell between 1918 and 1942.
Prior to his entry into politics, Lunn was a coal miner from the age of 12 and worked in Rothwell Haigh and Middleton Colliery. Lunn was active in the trade union movement during his time as a coal miner and helped found the Rothwell branch of the Independent Labour Party. Lunn also served on the Rothwell Urban District Council; becoming its chairman between 1915 and 1917. After his election victory in the Rothwell constituency, Lunn would go on to hold several roles in goverment during the 1920s and 30s, including Secretary for Overseas Trade, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs.
Biography
Early life & coal mining
William Lunn, or “Willie” as he was known, was born on 1st November 1872 in Rothwell to Thomas Lunn, a miner and trade unionist, and his wife Mary[1](née Jackson).[Original research][n. 1]
Lunn was the eldest of eight children[1](his siblings included Jane (b.1876), Harriet (b.1881), James J. (b.1882) and Nelly (b.1895)) and the family lived on Butcher Lane.[Original research][n. 2]
Lunn attended Rothwell Board School.[1]
At the age of twelve, Lunn began working at Rothwell Haigh colliery. When he was sixteen, Lunn was “victimised” for leading a pony drivers strike at the colliery. In November 1889, Lunn moved to Middleton Colliery. Lunn succeeded his father as chairman of the Rothwell miners’ branch of the Yorkshire Miners’ Association when he was nineteen. In 1900, he was elected checkweighman at Middleton Colliery, which he would continue to do until December 1918.[1]
Local politics
Lunn was a councillor for the Rothwell Urban District Council from 1900.[2]
Lunn unsuccessfully ran for the Holmfirth parliamentary by-election in 1912.[4] The Liberal Party were prepared to not contest the seat for a Labour candidate, however they would not do so for Lunn. He was, according to the Labour-affiliated newspaper the Daily Herald, “too much value as a fighting force, too uncompromising in his opposition to capitalist greed, too difficult to be put off with promises instead of solid concessions.”[2]
Lunn was described as “the albest of Labour men in the district” in 1914.[5] He was considered for the 1914 general election by the Holmfirth constituency Labour Party[6] and was invited to contest it by the Wakefield constituency Labour Party,[7] however the election never took place due to the outbreak of the First World War.
Lunn died on the 16th May 1942, while in office. An obituary in The Science and Art of Mining described him as “essentially a Rothwell man.”[9]
Notes
↑The only William Lunn born in the area in 1872 has a mother with the maiden name Jackson. See: ‘William Lunn’ (1872). Transcript of birth certificate for William Lunn, quater 4 1872. Vol 9B, p.332. Hunslet District.
↑See: ‘William Lunn’ (1891) Census return for Butcher Lane, Leeds, Hunslet subdistrict, Yorkshire [West Riding]. Public Record Office: PRO RG12/3668, folio 27, p.17. and ‘William Lunn’ (1901) Census return for Butcher Lane, Leeds, Hunslet subdistrict, Yorkshire [West Riding]. Public Record Office: PRO RG13/4199, folio 33, p.24.
Bellamy, J.M. and Saville, J. (eds) (1972) Dictionary of Labour Biography. Vol. II. London: Macmillan.
Craig, F.W.S. (1969) British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. Available at: http://archive.org/details/britishparliamen0000crai (Accessed: 8 June 2024).