Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mawdsley, James
MAWDSLEY, JAMES (1848–1902), trade union leader, born at Preston on 9 Feb. 1848, was son of Thomas Mawdsley, an operative cotton spinner, by his wife Jane Fawcett. At the age of nine he went to the mill as a half-timer. He soon became interested in trade unionism, and was elected in 1875 assistant secretary to the Preston Spinners' Association. He took an active part in the historic Preston lockout of 1878, and in September of that year became secretary to the Amalgamated Association of Cotton Spinners. He belonged to what is somewhat inaccurately called 'the old school of trade union leader.' Mr. Sidney Webb entitles him 'the cautious leader of the Lancashire cotton spinners,' but his policy was steadily directed to resist reductions in wages and secure a minimum scale agreement. His opposition to the reductions forced upon the operatives in 1879 and 1885 became an essential link in the development of trade union policy in Lancashire. But it was not till 1892-3 that he fought his great battle. The employers then sought to enforce a further reduction in wages of five per cent.; the operatives refused to accept it, and for twenty weeks the mills of south-east Lancashire were idle. The industrial result of this dispute was a reduction of under three per cent, and the famous conciliation scheme known as the Brooklands agreement, by which the men and the masters agreed to fix wages for periods of years by consent and refer disputes to an arbitrator. But a farther reaching effect was that as the operatives were very dissatisfied with the result it threw them into political agitation and so opened the door for the political labour party.
From 1882 to 1897 he was a member of the parliamentary committee of the trade union congress, and joined in the constant endeavours of the committee to widen its field of activity in home and foreign politics. Although he did not welcome the growing power of the independent labour political movement, he was forced along on its currents. He visited America in 1895 as a trade union delegate, and repeatedly went to the Continent on the same errand. He was made a J.P. for the city of Manchester in 1888 and for the county of Lancaster in 1894. He was a member of the royal commission which inquired into labour questions in 1891-4, opposed a general scheme of arbitration, and was one of the signatories of the minority report which advocated 'public for capitalist enterprise.' He was also a member of several local authorities. In 1900 he unsuccessfully contested Oldham as a trade unionist candidate for parliament.
He married in January 1871 Ann Wright, by whom he had five sons and four daughters. He died at Taunton, Ashton-under-Lyne, on 4 Feb. 1902, and was buried at Christ Church cemetery there.
[Factory Times, 7 Feb. 1902; The Times, 5 Feb. 1902; Sidney Webb's Industrial Democracy, 1897; family information.]