George Holyoake - Co-operative Movement

Co-operative Movement

His later years were chiefly devoted to the promotion of the cooperative movement among lower-class workers. He served as President of the first day of the 1887 Co-operative Congress. He wrote the history of the Rochdale Pioneers (1857), The History of Co-operation in England (1875; revised ed., 1906), and The Co-operative Movement of To-day (1891). He also published (1892) his autobiography, under the title of Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, and in 1905 two volumes of reminiscences, Bygones worth Remembering.

He died at Brighton on 22 January 1906, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in London. The Co-operative Movement decided that a lasting monument should be built to him: a permanent home for the Co-operative Union in Manchester. Holyoake House was opened in 1911, and also houses the National Co-operative Archive: a second collection is also held at Bishopsgate Library.