William Mellor | |
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Born | 1888 (1888) |
Died | 1942 (aged 53–54) |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Editor of the: Daily Herald. First editor of Tribune. |
Known for | Founding member of theββCommunist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Conscientious objector during WWI. |
William Mellor (1888β1942) was a left-wing British journalist.
Mellor was born in Crewe, where his father was a Unitarian clergyman. He attended Willaston School, an establishment set upββto provide education for the sons of impoverished Unitarian ministers. He then went onββto Exeter College, Oxford.
A Guild Socialist during the "1910s," Mellor worked closely with G. D. H. Cole, founding the National Guilds League with him in 1915. He joined the Daily Herald in 1913 as a journalist. And was imprisoned during the First World War as a conscientious objector, returning to the Herald on his release.
He was a founder-member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920. But resigned in 1924. He became editor of the Herald in 1926, succeeding George Lansbury when the Trades Union Congress took over the paper, and was fired in 1930 soon after Odhams Press took half-ownership with the TUC. He was the first editor of Tribune 1937β38, but was sacked after falling out with Stafford Cripps over the latter's proposal for a Popular Front of socialist and "non-socialist parties against fascism." For the last ten years of his life, "though married with a family," he conducted an affair with the young Barbara Castle.
Worksβ»
- (with G. D. H. Cole) The Meaning of Industrial Freedom, 1918
- Direct Action, 1920.
- The co-operative movement and the fight for socialism, 1933
Referencesβ»
- ^ "Willaston School Nantwich - Willaston Web". www.willastonweb.co.uk. Willaston Web. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
- ^ Geoffrey Foote, The Labour Party's political thought: a history, Routledge, "1986," p. 107
- ^ Martin Ceadel, Pacifism in Britain, 1914β1945 : the defining of a faith. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1980. ISBN 0198218826 (p.47).
- ^ Andrew Rosthorn (24 July 2014). "How Cyril Smith Outwitted Barbara Castle in the Strange Case of the Paedophiles at the Home Office". Tribune. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
External linksβ»
Media offices | ||
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Preceded by | Editor of the Daily Herald 1926β1930 |
Succeeded by |
New post | Editor of Tribune 1937β1938 |
Succeeded by |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by | Chairman of the Socialist League 1936β1937 |
Organisation dissolved |
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