National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers

Last updated

The National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers (NADSS) was a British veterans' organisation.

The group was founded in early 1917 at a conference in Blackburn, drawing together various local groups representing working men who had served in World War I but had since been discharged. It campaigned for better pensions, and more opportunities for re-training. Led by James Howell, it developed links with trade unions and the Labour Party. [1]

Blackburn town in Lancashire, England

Blackburn is a town in Lancashire, England, United Kingdom. It lies to the north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, 9 miles (14 km) east of Preston, 20.9 miles (34 km) NNW of Manchester and 9 miles (14 km) north of the Greater Manchester border. Blackburn is bounded to the south by Darwen, with which it forms the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen; Blackburn is its administrative centre. At the time of the UK Government's 2001 census, Blackburn had a population of 105,085, whilst the wider borough of Blackburn with Darwen had a population of 140,700. Blackburn had a population of 117,963 in 2011, a massive increase since 2001.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

A pension is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years, and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments. A pension may be a "defined benefit plan" where a fixed sum is paid regularly to a person, or a "defined contribution plan" under which a fixed sum is invested and then becomes available at retirement age. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is usually paid in regular installments for life after retirement, while the latter is typically paid as a fixed amount after involuntary termination of employment prior to retirement.

The association sponsored several candidates at the 1918 general election, forming part of what was termed the "Silver Badge Party". Robert Hewitt Barker was elected in Sowerby, [2] having been endorsed by the local branch, but not by the executive, and acting essentially as an independent Conservative.

Silver Badge Party

The Silver Badge Party was an unofficial political movement which existed in the United Kingdom during and immediately after World War I. The Party consisted of several groups representing the political interests of former service personnel. It took its name from the Silver War Badge (SWB) that was issued to servicemen who had been invalided out of the forces.

Robert Hewitt Barker was a British textile mill owner. He was the independent Member of Parliament for Sowerby, 1918–1922, with the support of the National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers.

Around this time, the group severed its links with the labour movement, and became more conservative in outlook, moving closer to the Comrades of the Great War group. In 1919, James Myles Hogge replaced Howell as President. [3] In 1921, it merged with the Comrades group, the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers and the Officers' Association to form the British Legion. [4]

The Comrades of The Great War were formed in 1917 as an association to represent the rights of ex-service men and women who had served or had been discharged from service during World War I. Comrades of The Great War was one of the original four ex-service associations that amalgamated on Sunday 15 May 1921 to form The British Legion.

The National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers (NFDDSS) was a British veterans organisation.

The Officers' Association (OA) is a British charity supporting military ex-officers and their families, founded in 1920. It received a Royal Charter on 10 June the following year and is closely associated with The Royal British Legion.

Related Research Articles

Independent Labour Party UK political party

The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893, when the Liberals appeared reluctant to endorse working-class candidates, representing the interests of the majority. A sitting independent MP and prominent union organiser, Keir Hardie, became its first chairman.

1945 United Kingdom general election

The 1945 United Kingdom general election was held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, because of local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, to allow time to transport the votes of those serving overseas.

The Royal British Legion organization

The Royal British Legion (RBL), sometimes called The British Legion or The Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants.

The National Democratic and Labour Party, usually abbreviated to National Democratic Party (NDP), was a short-lived political party in the United Kingdom.

Leeds Central (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Leeds Central is a constituency recreated in 1983 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1999 by Hilary Benn of the Labour Party. A former guise of the seat spanned 1885 to 1955.

Leeds West (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Leeds West is a borough constituency in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire which is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. The current MP is Rachel Reeves of the Labour Party — it has been a Labour seat since 1945.

The National Party was a short-lived British political party created in August 1917 as a right-wing split from the Conservative Party.

Sheffield City Council elections usually take place by thirds, three years out of every four. Each of Sheffield's 28 wards is represented by three positions on the council, meaning there are usually 28 seats contested in each local election. 2004 saw new ward boundaries and therefore all seats were contested.

The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in England, Scotland and Wales whose associations remained largely autonomous. At its peak, the federation represented nearly one million workers. It was reorganised into the National Union of Mineworkers in 1945.

Manchester Hulme was a parliamentary constituency in Manchester which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until it was abolished for the 1950 general election.

Leeds South was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election. It was then largely replaced by the new Morley and Leeds South constituency.

The Liverpool Abercromby by-election, 1917 was a parliamentary by-election held on 28 June 1917 for the British House of Commons constituency of Liverpool Abercromby. The seat had become vacant when the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Richard Chaloner had taken the post of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 18 June 1917, thus effectively resigning from the Commons. Five days later, Chaloner was created Baron Gisborough. He had been MP from Liverpool Abercromby since the January 1910 general election. The Conservative candidate, Lord Stanley held the seat for the party. He remained the constituency's MP until the seat was abolished for the 1918 general election.

Wilfrid Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple British politician

Colonel Wilfrid William Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple, PC, was a British soldier and Conservative politician. He served as Minister of Transport between 1924 and 1929 under Stanley Baldwin.

The Wansbeck by-election, 1918 was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland on 28 May 1918.

Sir Thomas Frederick Lister CBE was the first chairman of the British Legion. Along with Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Lister was a leading advocate for the foundation of the British Legion in the aftermath of the First World War.

The National Union of Ex-Servicemen (NUX) was a socialist ex-servicemen's organisation founded in London in early 1919 with close links with the Labour Party. Many of its members were formerly supporters of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers and the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen's Union (SSAU). Within six months it had grown from one branch with fifty members to over one hundred branches and claimed a membership of nearly 100,000. Its membership was boosted by the stance of the Federation against the 1919 United Kingdom railway strike in the autumn of that year: it called on Prime Minister David Lloyd George to "hold firm against Labour tyranny", causing tension in its ranks and prompting many left-wing members to leave and join NUX, which had supported the strike. By the end of 1919 NUX had 200,000 members and 200 branches.

Arthur Charles Bannington, sometimes known as Charlie Bannington, was a British political activist.

References

  1. Niall Barr, The Lion and the Poppy, p.11
  2. Ian Frederick William Beckett, The Great War, 1914-1918, p.573
  3. Niall Barr, The Lion and the Poppy, p.17
  4. Niall Barr, The Lion and the Poppy, p.18