John Scurr

Who was John Scurr?

John Scurr, born John Rennie, was an English Labour Party politician and trade union official who served as Member of Parliament for Mile End from 1923 to 1931.

Scurr was born in Brisbane, Australia, the son of Louis James Rennie, an immigrant from London, but was adopted by his uncle, Captain John Scurr, and brought to London aged six months. He spent his life in Poplar in the East End, from which his family came, a lifelong supporter of left-wing and Labour causes.

He was an active member of Poplar Trades Council and was elected as an alderman to Poplar Borough Council in 1919. He served as mayor in 1922–1923, vice-chairman and chairman of the Metropolitan Boroughs Standing Joint Committee, and an alderman of London County Council from 1925 to 1929. In 1921 he was imprisoned, along with 29 other Poplar councillors, as a protest against unequal rates.

In 1913, when Scurr was Chairman of the London District Committee of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union, he was a last minute socialist candidate at the Chesterfield by-election.

He contested the 1914 Ipswich by-election coming third as the Conservatives snatched the seat from the Liberals.