T. R. Threlfall

Who is T. R. Threlfall?

Thomas Robert Threlfall, known as T. R. Threlfall, was a British trade unionist and Liberal-Labour politician.

Threlfall was elected as a member of the Southport Town Council, and as President of Southport Trades Council. He was also active in the Typographical Association, and championed the idea of working men standing for election to Parliament. In 1885, he persuaded the Association to sponsor two candidates: Frederick Maddison, and Threlfall himself, who stood for the Liberal Party at the 1886 UK general election in Sheffield Hallam.

In 1885, the Trades Union Congress was held in Southport, and Threlfall was elected to serve as its President. At the following congress, he convinced the TUC to form a Labour Electoral Committee, to sponsor candidates for election to Parliament. He served as the body's first Secretary, and focused his activity on forming local labour electoral organisations, affiliated to the national body. The Committee was renamed as the "Labour Electoral Association", and although it championed representation through the Liberal Party, it did sponsor Keir Hardie's independent candidacy at the Mid Lanark by-election, 1888.

Threlfall stood for Parliament again, as a Lib-Lab candidate, in Liverpool Kirkdale at the 1892 general election, but he was again unsuccessful. Given its generally disappointing results, the body declined in importance, although Threlfall remained its Secretary until it was wound up, in 1895.