Jack Lawson - Background

Background

Lawson was born in the port town of Whitehaven, Cumberland, and grew up in the nearby village of Kells. His father John Lawson was a sailor and miner who had begun working in a colliery by the age of nine, sailed round the world by eleven, and later served in the Royal Naval Reserve. His mother, Lisbeth Savage, was a strict disciplinarian. Both parents were illiterate and the family lived in extremes of poverty common at the time. At the age of three, Lawson was sent to the local National School, Glass House School. Here, he learned to read, developing an avid interest in popular fiction as a boy, and moving on to literary fiction and poetry in later years. When he was six his family moved to the village of Flimby, near the towns of Maryport and Workington. The family now included ten children: five boys and five girls. Two of his elder brothers worked with his father at the local colliery and the family was no longer on the breadline. A year later, they moved to County Durham, where the working members were employed at Boldon Colliery. The family joined the Co-operative Society, and were committed trade unionists, active in the Durham miners' strike of 1892. Outside of school, Jack Lawson's time was consumed with chores and he often looked after his youngest brother, Will, born in 1890.

Lawson eagerly began work in the colliery the day after he turned twelve. He started as a trapper, opening and shutting doors for the drivers, working a ten-hour day. He was paid ten pence per day, and his life greatly improved - he was treated as an adult now. After a few months he became a driver, with his own pony. After a couple more years, he began off-hand work, braking inclines and attending to the signalling bells. He began attending union meetings, including the annual Durham Miners' Gala, where in later years he met the likes of Will Crooks, Ellen Wilkinson, Ernest Bevin and George Lansbury. At eighteen he became a putter and began speaking and working for the union. With five members of the family now working at the colliery, the Lawsons had a higher status and moved into a house closer to the pit, with a front room. Throughout this period his he gambled frequently and read a lot: Eventually, reading won over gambling. He had read nothing of economics or politics yet, but had developed a strong sense of injustice, firmly believing that manual workers were under-paid and under-valued. These ideas generally seemed strange to his colleagues and family and he kept them to himself. He joined the Methodist Society, and found his ideas more accepted there. Through reading the Labour Leader and The Clarion, Lawson realised he was a socialist. At the age of 21 he met Isabella Graham Scott, a domestic servant from Sunderland who was staying with friends at Boldon. They were married in February 1906.