Early Life
Smith was born in Wallsend, the son of a Durham miner. Both his parents were communists and Smith adopted left-wing opinions himself. He was unemployed during the 1930s but founded his own painting and decorating business in 1937 which was known for being somewhat economical (its local nickname was 'One-Coat Smith'). During World War II, Smith registered as a conscientious objector and was initially active in opposing the war and organising strikes against it; he supported the war after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
During the war, Smith joined several left-wing organisations. He was a regional representative for the Independent Labour Party in 1943, and later joined the Revolutionary Communist Party where he led a shipyard strike. By 1945, he was a member of the Labour Party. In 1950 he was elected to Newcastle City Council as a Labour member, and became Chairman of the Labour Group in 1953. It was at this stage that he took to using his first initial in his name, after an embarrassing incident at Newcastle Airport when he was confused with another Dan Smith.
Read more about this topic: T. Dan Smith
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“For the writer, there is nothing quite like having someone say that he or she understands, that you have reached them and affected them with what you have written. It is the feeling early humans must have experienced when the firelight first overcame the darkness of the cave. It is the communal cooking pot, the Street, all over again. It is our need to know we are not alone.”
—Virginia Hamilton (b. 1936)
“This death’s livery which walled its bearers from ordinary life was sign that they have sold their wills and bodies to the State: and contracted themselves into a service not the less abject for that its beginning was voluntary.”
—T.E. (Thomas Edward)