George Nicoll Barnes

Who was George Nicoll Barnes?

George Nicoll Barnes CH PC was a Scottish politician and a leader of the Labour Party.

Barnes was born in Lochee, Dundee, the second of five sons of James Barnes, a skilled engineer and mill manager from Yorkshire, and his wife, Catherine Adam Langlands. The family moved back to England and settled at Ponders End in Middlesex, where his father managed a jute mill in which George himself began working at the age of eleven, after attending a church school at Enfield Highway. He then spent two years as an engineering apprentice, first at Powis James of Lambeth then at Parker's foundry, Dundee. After finishing his apprenticeship he worked for two years at the Vickers shipyard in Barrow before returning once again to the London area, where he experienced unemployment during the slump of 1879. He had a number of short-term jobs before settling for eight years at Lucas and Airds in Fulham. In 1882 he married Jessie, daughter of Thomas Langlands, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

During his time in London Barnes became an active member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, a committed member of the co-operative movement, and a keen if moderate socialist, which led him to join the Independent Labour Party on its foundation in 1893. At the 1895 general election he stood unsuccessfully for the Independent Labour Party in Rochdale. He was elected as MP for Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown at the 1906 general election for the Labour Party, becoming one of the first two Labour MPs to be elected in Scotland. He sat for Blackfriars and Hutchesontown until the constituency was abolished for the 1918 general election, and thereafter sat for Glasgow Gorbals until he stood down at the 1922 election.