George Dallas (Labour politician)

For other people named George Dallas, see George Dallas (disambiguation).

George Dallas (6 August 1878 – 4 January 1961) was a British Labour Party politician.^{[citation needed]}

Born in Glasgow, Dallas worked as a coal miner in his youth.^{[citation needed]} He joined the Socialist League in about 1894 before moving to London to work for a coal merchant.^{[citation needed]} Returning to Glasgow, he participated in the trade union movement and a variety of jobs before becoming the Secretary of the Independent Labour Party in Scotland from 1908 until 1912.^{[citation needed]}

In 1912, Dallas moved back to London to work as the organiser of the National Federation of Women Workers, but soon moved to the Workers' Union.^{[citation needed]} In 1917, he was appointed to the Agricultural Wages Board. In 1922, he moved to the newly built Welwyn Garden City.^{[citation needed]}

At the 1918 and 1922 general elections, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Maldon constituency in Essex, coming a distant second on each occasion, with 39.6% and 27.8% of the votes respectively.^{[citation needed]} He was unsuccessful again at the 1923 general election in Scottish constituency of Roxburgh and Selkirk, coming third with 36% of the votes.^{[citation needed]}

Dallas did not contest the 1924 general election. However, at the 1929 general election, he was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for the marginal seat of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, after the sitting Labour MP William Cove moved to the safe Labour seat of Aberavon in Wales.^{[citation needed]}

When the Labour Party split at the 1931 general election, he lost his seat with a swing of 16.6% to the Conservative candidate Archibald James.^{[citation needed]}

Dallas stood again in Wellingborough at the 1935 general election again, cutting the Conservative majority to 372 votes, but never returned to Parliament.^{[citation needed]} He died in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire aged 82.^{[citation needed]}

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd edition ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Dallas

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Cove	Member of Parliament for Wellingborough 1929–1931	Succeeded by Archibald James
Political offices
Preceded by Hugh Dalton	Chair of the Labour Party 1937–1939	Succeeded by Barbara Gould