A. A. Purcell

Albert Arthur "Alf" Purcell (3 November 1872 – 24 December 1935)[1] was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was President of the International Federation of Trade Unions from 1924 to 1928,[2] and sat in the House of Commons in two separate periods between 1923 and 1929.

Purcell in 1920

Purcell joined a forerunner of the National Amalgamated Furnishing Trades Association in 1891. About the same time, he also joined the Social Democratic Federation. He was elected to Salford Borough Council, serving for six years, then in 1911 became Assistant General Secretary of the union, followed in 1917 by election as General Secretary. Alongside this, he served as Treasurer of the Federation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades for three years, then as President. In 1920 he visited Belfast as part of a TUC delegation enquiring into the workplace expulsions. He was elected to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1921, becoming President of the TUC in 1924. In 1925, he chaired a TUC delegation to the Soviet Union.[3] Leon Trotsky was very critical of the political choices of the Stalinist bureaucracy toward Purcell.[4]

Purcell was elected at the December 1923 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the city of Coventry, defeating the sitting Conservative MP Sir Edward Manville.[5] However, at the next general election, in October 1924, he was defeated by the Conservative candidate from the 1923 general election.[5]

However, Purcell was out of Parliament for only 9 months. James Wignall, the Labour MP for the Forest of Dean division of Gloucestershire, died in June 1925,[6] and at the resulting by-election on 14 July, Purcell won the seat.[5] He did not defend that seat at the 1929 general election, but stood instead in Manchester Moss Side, where he was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Sir Gerald Berkeley Hurst.[5]