Tom Myers

Who was Tom Myers?

Tom Myers was a British Labour Party politician.

Born in Mirfield, Myers left school at the age of 12 and spent several years working in coal mines and factories in the West Riding of Yorkshire before taking up employment at a glass bottle works. An early supporter of the Labour Party, he was elected to Thornhill Urban District Council in 1904. In 1910 the urban district was absorbed by the municipal borough of Dewsbury, and Myers became a member of Dewsbury Borough Council.

At the 1918 general election Myers contested the constituency of Spen Valley for the Labour Party, but failed to unseat the sitting Coalition Liberal member of parliament, Sir Thomas Whittaker. Whittaker died in November 1919, and Myers was selected to fight the ensuing by election. The poll came at the same time as a serious split in the Liberal Party over continuing support for the coalition government: Colonel B C Fairfax was nominated as the Coalition Liberal candidate while Sir John Simon stood as an Independent Liberal. The poll was held on 20 December 1919, although the votes were not counted until 3 January of the following year.