Pages from Edwin Gooch: Champion of the Farmworkers
Edwin Gooch was a significant figure in agricultural trade unionism and Labour Party politics in the mid-20th century. After setting up South Norfolk Labour Party in his native town of Wymondham in 1918, he helped elect George Edwards MP; then came to prominence himself in the 1923 Great Strike of Norfolk farmworkers. As President of the National Union of Agricultural Workers from 1930, he served for almost 35 years in an honorary but influential role, and in 1945 he was elected MP for North Norfolk, becoming Party Chairman ten years later. He led the fight for decent wages and conditions for farmworkers, and campaigned against the tied cottage, with support from Labour heroes George Lansbury, Clement Attlee and Aneurin Bevan. In this book, his grandson, Simon Gooch, draws on his late father’s reminiscences, his own childhood memories and archival research—often using Edwin’s own words from the NUAW’s journal The Land Worker. The language of political debate comes back to life, creating a vivid portrait of a man whose strong Norfolk accent once rang around the House of Commons.
Edwin Gooch was a significant figure in agricultural trade unionism and Labour Party politics in the mid-20th century. After setting up South Norfolk Labour Party in his native town of Wymondham in 1918, he helped elect George Edwards MP; then came to prominence himself in the 1923 Great Strike of Norfolk farmworkers. As President of the National Union of Agricultural Workers from 1930, he served for almost 35 years in an honorary but influential role, and in 1945 he was elected MP for North Norfolk, becoming Party Chairman ten years later. He led the fight for decent wages and conditions for farmworkers, and campaigned against the tied cottage, with support from Labour heroes George Lansbury, Clement Attlee and Aneurin Bevan.
In this book, his grandson, Simon Gooch, draws on his late father’s reminiscences, his own childhood memories and archival research—often using Edwin’s own words from the NUAW’s journal The Land Worker. The language of political debate comes back to life, creating a vivid portrait of a man whose strong Norfolk accent once rang around the House of Commons.
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NUAW Norfolk Agricultural Wages
Committee, 118
NUAW Norfolk County Banner, 2, 46,
56
NUAW Norfolk County Committee,
34
NUAW Norfolk County Emergency
Committee, 37, 41
NUAW Norfolk Dispute Committee,
39-40
NUAW Norfolk Distress Fund, 37-38
NUAW Norfolk Strike Committee, 40
NUAW Skegness Rally [1948], 82
NUAW Taunton meeting [speech,
1940], 70
NUAW Wellesbourne Rally [1949],
83
NUAW Wheatacre Branch Dinner
[1939], 68
NUAW Wymondham & Silfield
Branch, 117
NUAW Wymondham Great County
Rally, 56
National Union of Journalists [NUJ], 15,
23, 76, 121-122
National Union of Land Workers, 34
National Union of Railwaymen [NUR],
28, 38
Nazi Germany, 68
New Buckenham Silver Band, 56
New Deal, 54
‘New York Times’, 68
Noel, Rev Conrad, 56
Noel-Buxton, Lord, 75 [see Buxton, Noel]
Noel-Buxton, Lady, 76 [see Buxton, Lucy]
Norfolk Agricultural Wages Board, 116
Norfolk Broads, 4, 20-21
Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture, 62
‘Norfolk Chronicle’, 52, 90
Norfolk County Council, 33, 35, 44, 48,
52, 60, 70-71, 90, 106, 117
Norfolk County Playing Fields
Association, 48
Norfolk Education Committee, 25, 70, 90
Norfolk Farmers Union, 58
Norfolk Great Strike, 37-43, 47, 80
Norfolk Regiment, 19
Norfolk Wages Committee, 52, 58
Norfolk War Agricultural Executive
Committee, 73
North Norfolk Labour Party, 74-77, 84,
86-87, 92, 96, 103, 119, 122
North Walsham, 23, 101
Norwich Cattle Market, 17
‘Norwich Mercury’, 3, 9, 14-17, 20, 23,
60, 76, 112
‘Norwich Mercury’ St George’s Works,
14-15
Norwich Prison, 52
Nuclear Disarmament, 102-103
Oddfellows [Independent Order of, Loyal
Agincourt Lodge],11
Osmay, Mukdim, 114
Page, Wilf, 84-85, 121-122
Pathé News, 82
Peasants Revolt, 1
Peel, Sam, 34-35, 39, 42, 90
Pelican Inn, Tacolnestone [speech, 1923],
43
Pentelow, Mike, 4
Percy, Rev, 11
Phillips, Morgan, 90
‘Phœnix and the Turtle’, 91
Pius XII, Pope, 106
Primitive Methodist Connexion, 4, 9-11,
18, 28, 46, 49, 65, 105-106
‘Prosper the Plough’ [Labour Party policy
document, 1958], 102
‘Queen Elizabeth’, 92
129
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