PITMAN AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Situated in the Unconsecrated/Eastern Section of Jesmond Old Cemetery
From pitboy to Privy Councillor neatly summarises the life of Thomas Burt. He was the first working miner to become an M.P. when, in 1874, he won the seat for Morpeth as a Liberal and continued to hold it until his retirement in 1918, by which time he had become ‘father’ of the House of Commons.
Thomas Burt.
Born on November 12, 1837 at Murton Row, a hamlet consisting of some sixteen single-story, one room cottages situated between Backworth and Percy Main. His family consisted of parents, Peter Burt and Rebecca (nee Weatherburn), twin sisters, who were born before him but both dying in infancy, and one brother, Peter, who was four and a half years his junior, who died in the Spring of 1874, aged 33. Thomas’ Father was born at Hebburn Colliery and was employed as a coal-hewer in one of the Earsdon collieries and his maternal Grandfather, Thomas Weatherburn, was employed as a colliery engineman in Cowpen Colliery, near Blyth.
In his autobiography, published in 1924, Thomas recounts the pitmen’s strike of 1844, focussing on his Fathers role in helping to achieve a pay rise for hewers to 4 shillings a day but paying for this with his job, with the owner of Seghill Pit refusing to re-engage him after the strike for his active role during the 17 weeks of struggle. Undoubtedly, this experience would heavily influence Thomas in his future involvement with trade unionism and politics.
Thomas had a limited education at a local dame school, ran by a Mrs Campbell, the wife of a pitman, before beginning work at ten years of age as a pit trapper boy in Haswell Pit on November 13, 1847, where he earned ten pence for a 12 hour day. Thomas describes having to be at his post all day, in total darkness, opening and closing the doors that not only controlled the passage of the coal tubs through the mine, but also helped direct the air-currents below ground. After a few weeks as a trapper, he was transferred to donkey-driving and placed in charge of ‘Old Spanker’ – “a best tempered creature but with awkward peculiarities” – and increased his pay to a shilling a day!! Over the following years, Thomas also became a ‘water-leader’ – baling water into tubs and taking it away in order to prepare the working place for the hewer to start his day’s work – and a ‘pony-putter’ – driving the ponies and the tubs along the rails of the mine, eventually ending up as a hewer at Seaton Delaval pit by the time he was 17 years of age.
It was during his time at Seaton Delaval that Thomas became an avid reader and was frequently seen walking the 16 miles to and from Newcastle to buy second hand books. He became proficient in Latin, French, mathematics, English Literature (his favourites being Longfellow, Pope, Milton and Wordsworth) and shorthand, despite living in a crowded one-roomed cottage.
In 1860, Thomas married his cousin, Mary Weatherburn – ‘the best day’s work I have done’ – in Bedlington Parish Church. In the 1871 Census, Thomas and Mary were recorded as living at 7 Wellington Street, Cowpen (the street is now known as Burt Street) and by the time of the 1881 Census, when living in 35, Lovaine Crescent, Newcastle, they were listed as having three daughters, Rebecca, aged 20, Mary, aged 13 and Jane, aged 6 and three sons, Thomas, aged 11, Peter, aged 8 and Wilfred, aged 1. In the 1891 Census, the Burt family are now living at 20, Burdon Terrace in Jesmond, where Thomas remained until his death.
20, Burdon Terrace, Jesmond
The ‘blue plaque’ on the front of Thomas’ old house.
Thomas became Secretary of the Northumberland Miners’ Association in 1863. Based on a conciliatory approach to labour – management relations, Thomas made the N.M.A. one of the most respected labour unions in Great Britain; conciliation formed the core of his labour and political ideology, preferring arbitration over confrontation and adamantly opposing the use of strike in labour – management negotiations, except as a weapon of last resort. In 1874, Thomas was returned to Parliament for Morpeth, alongside Alexander MacDonald, a fellow miner’s leader – the first genuine trade unionists to enter Parliament. They both stood as a Radical labour candidates with Liberal support and formed part of a small group of Liberal – Labour politicians in the House of Commons in the 1880’s and 1890’s. In essence, the first ‘Lib – Lab’ M.P.’s, where they accepted the Liberal whip while exercising the right to utilise their experience to speak freely on labour issues.
After the 1892 General Election, William Gladstone appointed Thomas as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, in which capacity he served until 1895.
In 1895, a new headquarters for the Northumberland Miners’ association was opened at Northumberland Road, Newcastle and was later named Burt Hall in recognition of Thomas’s 48 years as General Secretary and his three years as Secretary of the Board of Trade. A sculpture of Ralph Hedley’s painting of a pitman adorns the roof of the building. Burt Hall now forms part of Northumbria University’s City Campus.
Thomas was a lifelong abstainer and Temperance was central to his beliefs and life; he was a close associate of William Lawson and a firm believer and campaigner for Local Option. He remained a lifelong and doughty Temperance Campaigner.
After a long illness, in which he was mainly bed-ridden for the last three years of his life, Thomas died on the 12th April, 1922, at the ripe old age of 84, leaving effects of just over £5,128.
Thomas Cox Meech, who wrote a biography of Thomas, paid the following tribute to him after his death: ‘Much that he did may be forgotten. Many of his truly heroic acts perhaps have never been recorded. One fact is absolutely beyond dispute. Thomas Burt was one of England’s great men.’
Unfortunately, Thomas’s memorial had been laid flat for Health and Safety reasons and had become overgrown and hidden until the Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery cleared away the years of neglect. However, after a long but successful funding campaign, where we attracted finance from the Northumberland area of the National Union of Mineworkers, the City Council, the Evening Chronicle’s ‘WISH’ campaign and Jesmond Waitrose, we were able to raise nearly £1,700 so that we could direct local firm, Classic Masonry, to re-erect the memorial as a fitting tribute to a true working class hero.
A newspaper cutting from The Journal about our restoration of Thomas Burt’s memorial.
On the 14th April 2014, the Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery hosted a celebration, where Reverend Rob Hawkins, from the Jesmond Methodist Church, carried out a rededication service. The Backworth Colliery Band and Heaton Voices Community Choir provided stirling musical entertainment and Ian Lavery M.P. for Wansbeck gave a warm and congratulatory speech about Thomas Burt and the work of the Friends group within Jesmond Old Cemetery.
A newspaper cutting from The Chronicle.