Dewsbury Working Men's Conservative Club

There had been a local Conservative Association in Dewsbury for a number of years indeed a “Great Conservative Demonstration” was held in 1879 at the Dewsbury & Batley Skating Rink under the auspices of Dewsbury & Batley Working Men’s Conservative Association.  Dewsbury had apparently become noted in the area for such large Conservative meetings and demonstrations and it would seem from this that there was a strong Conservative movement in the Dewsbury area prior to the formation of a “social” club.  The Rink had been decorated especially for the occasion with scrolls on the front of the stage bearing the words 

“God Save the Queen” and “Lord Beaconsfield, the Premier”.  

At the sides were the banners of both Dewsbury and Batley Conservative Associations described as being of “beautiful design”. 

Above the sides of the large gallery were more scrolls inscribed with the names of prominent Conservative politicians and across the front beam of the gallery was a banner bearing a motto that set 

“forth that success was the reward of labour”.  

Behind that another was hung high up which had on it the names of “Stanhope and Starkey”.  Behind this yet another upon which were the words

 “God Bless the Prince and Princess of Wales”.   

Thirty six tables were laid out with food that had been supplied by Mrs Cutts of the King’s Arms Hotel, Dewsbury.  The tables were managed by a group of ladies who although their names were listed in the Huddersfield Chronicle and they were thanked for their help there is no indication that they were otherwise involved in the Conservative movement of the time. The event had taken a great deal of organisation and the committee that had undertaken the task were stated to be 

“composed entirely of working men”.  

 Huddersfield Daily Chronicle Friday 24 October 1879. 

The social club was formed when the Dewsbury Conservative Association met in the rooms of the former WMC in Nelson Street Dewsbury in 1883.    A large crowd gathered at the meeting who were interested in Conservative principles and anxious to form a club in Dewsbury. The intention of the meeting had been to advertise the fact that the club was opening. Mr M Newsome JP who was president of the association and also of the Carlton Club opened the meeting.  He stated that he did not intend to continue as president of the new club and that that position would be held by  Mr John Wormald, JP who was leader of the Conservative party in Dewsbury.    

However it was felt that a social club was needed where members could meet together and 

“spend a few leisure hours either in friendly games, reading or conversation.”  

The Conservative Association had canvassed the area for subscriptions and there were 130 prospective membership.  Subscriptions of 6s per year or 1s 6d per quarter in advance and about £215 had already been collected. The rooms at this point were not furnished nor had they been renovated completely and some considered that the opening event had been somewhat premature. However it was hoped that the renovations would be completed in a fortnight’s time and then the place could be properly finished and furnished. The decision was to be made that evening as to what the full name of the new club would be. The initial proposal was for 

“Dewsbury Conservative Club”, 

however this was then amended to 

“Dewsbury Working Men’s Conservative Club”

 by T. Spedding and this amendment to the name was agreed by all.   Huddersfield Daily Chronicle 30 August 1883

A large meeting of Conservatives was held in the Industrial Hall, Dewsbury in October 1884 with two objectives in mind.  The first was the formal inauguration of the Dewsbury Working Men’s Conservative Club which had been established for some time and the second was to introduce A. E. Gathorne Hardy the Conservative candidate for the South Division of the West Riding to the crowd. Ellis Ashmead Bartlett MP also attended the event together with other prominent Conservatives.  Large numbers of people attended the meeting and John Wormald, President of the club, said that there was a steady growth of Conservatism in the district. Yorkshire Post 10 October 1884

The Leeds Times in 1886 reported that the club were having a “tournament” but went on to add that this was not “a joust with lance and attired in chain armour.”  Instead the lance was replaced with a billiard cue! The club was competing in this tournament with the Dewsbury Working Men’s Club and it took place over a number of days. A further part of the tournament had involved members of the clubs playing whist and scores were combined to decide the winners. Apparently “the blues” (which one would presume were the Conservative Club members) were the visitors, leading at billiards and “carrying all before them” at Whist.   Leeds Times 29 May 1886

A protest meeting was organised by the Conservative clubs of Dewsbury, Morley and Spen Valley in 1914. The protest was 

“against the use of British troops to shoot down Ulster Loyalists”

 Leeds Mercury 20 May 1914. 

It was held in Dewsbury Markey Place but was reported as being a “fiasco” from the start and was promptly ended when in “scenes of confusion and disorder”.   Dewsbury had a large Irish population at that time and they were represented in large numbers in the crowd attending the meeting which had commenced with a procession with a band and a Union Jack flag. Speakers at the rally were heckled and interrupted throughout their speeches.

In 1923 the club was reported as having a substantial membership of 445 and a healthy balance of £1307.  Edwin Henry John Keeble was elected club President, he was chief clerk at Dewsbury County Court. A position that he had held since 1895.  Leeds Mercury 21 February 1923.  A similar successful year was reported in 1926 when the club had a membership of 360 and a balance in hand of £1310 and John E Haigh was re-elected as President.  Leeds Mercury 9 February 1926

A social event advertised as a “smoking concert” in the Yorkshire Post of 1927 was held at the club. Sir Robert Clough was to attend the event. Mr F. W. Skelsey, who had previously been a Conservative candidate for Dewsbury was President of the club succeeding John E Haigh.  The membership of the club in 1927 stood at 334. Yorkshire Post 12 February 1927

The club held its annual meeting in 1928 where reports were made to the members on the position of the club.  The reports showed that there had been a fall in membership at that time as it was then 281.  Despite this the club had made a lots of improvements during the year, and their finances were reported to be in a “sound position”.  Leeds Mercury 10 February 1928

Gloucester Echo November 1936

Tragedy struck the club when two of its members died by suspected suicide. Club member Harry Woodcock, was found dead on the railway lines at Dewsbury that November. He had been missing from home since the evening before his body was discovered.  Leeds Mercury 13 November 1936, the Gloucestershire Echo, 12 November 1936.   Another tragedy followed the next year when Alfred Windle was found drowned.  He was the steward of the club and his body was recovered from Fenton’s Mill Dam in September 1937.  Yorkshire Evening Post 18 September 1937

The Dewsbury Conservative and Unionist Association together with the Dewsbury Conservative Club held a yearly dance, usually in Dewsbury Town Hall and they regularly could expect an attendance of between 300 to 400 people.  The 1928 event is effusively described in the Yorkshire Post of February that year - there had been an entertainments committee to arrange the occasion and it was stated that these arrangements had been “excellent”.  The town hall had 

“an effective scheme of decoration” with the central feature being “evergreens on a background of white lattice work”.  

About 300 guests attended and participated in the entertainments.  The evening took the form of Whist being played in the Exchange Hall and dancing in the Victoria Hall. Stewards for both activities had been selected. Yorkshire Post & Leeds Mercury 15 February 1928.   

 

Yorkshire Post 1938

On another occasion, in January 1939, tickets for the dance reportedly had sold very well and many local Conservatives were there, including the Mayor and Mayoress of Dewsbury, Alderman Frederick William Tong and Mrs Tong. Yorkshire Post 25 January 1939

In 1940 John Donovan was elected President of the club for the fifth year in succession. He held the position from 1935 until 1941 when he resigned due to ill health and Seth Mitchell succeeded him as President.    Seth Mitchell was re-elected as President of the club in February 1945. Yorkshire Post 25 February 1941 & 28 February 1945

The annual meeting of 1952 showed a surplus of £72 on the previous year.  T. E. Garforth was re-elected as President.  Yorkshire Post 26 February 1952

There is no exact date known for when the club moved to Grove Street, Dewsbury but an advert for an experienced club steward and wife appeared in the Yorkshire Post in February 1953.

Prominent Members –

Aubrey Simister Lyles, Leeds Mercury 1928

Aubrey Simister Lyles – A prominent figure in the business and public life of the Heavy Woollen District and the chairman of S. Lyles & Sons, yarn spinners and dyers of Jibbing Ing Mills, Earlsheaton. 

Aubrey was the eldest son of Samuel Lyles of Dewsbury and had two brothers Cecil and Percy all of whom worked in the family business. He was well known in trade circles and had been a member of the Northern Wool Buyers Association for over 20 years. He was also on the committee of the Goat Hair Trade for Great Britain which watched over the interests of the trade and the disinfecting of imported supplies. He was had also been on the council of Dewsbury Trade of Commerce and had been an official of Leeds University Old Textile Students Association.  As well as his trade associations he took an active interest in politics in the Heavy Woollen District.  Aubrey was a staunch Conservative and President of Dewsbury Conservative Association until 1925 when his health became poor. He had worked enthusiastically for the Conservative cause since his early twenties being on the Conservative Executive for the old Morley Division. As a member of the Dewsbury Conservative Club he worked tirelessly to interest younger men in politics and to join the club.  He was vice chairman of the club for a time before becoming President when he succeeded Stanhope Crabtree in the post.

 Aubrey also had many other public roles.  He had represented All Saints Ward on Dewsbury Town Council and had done valuable work as chairman of the Highways Committee only resigning his position a few months before his death. He was a governor at Dewsbury Wheelwright Grammar School and Dewsbury Technical College as well as a member of the Education Committee.  In 1925 he had been appointed a borough magistrate in recognition of his public service.   

Leeds Mercury 27 August 1928

He died in August 1928 at the age of 43.  His health had been poor for over two years and he had had a seizure that day which proved to be fatal. His funeral was attended by many local business men and public officials which reflected the esteem in which he had been held. He was buried at St John’s Church, Dewsbury Moor and the grave was surrounded with a mass of wreaths and flowers. The Yorkshire Post gave a full list of the names of those attending which including representative from the Dewsbury and other Conservative Clubs in the area.   Leeds Mercury 27 August 1928; Yorkshire Post 30 August 1928

Harold France, Yorkshire Post 1940

Harold France, Lord Mayor of Dewsbury in 1939 – 1940, was a member of the Dewsbury Conservative Club and the Carlton until his sudden death in 1940. He was the son of Walter France, who had also been Lord Mayor of Dewsbury right through WW1, from 1915 to 1919. His portrait was presented by his widow and son to be hung in Dewsbury Town Hall.  Harold had been educated at Wheelwright Boy’s Grammar School and the year prior to his death had been appointed chairman of the governors of the Wheelwright Schools.  He was the first “old boy” to hold that position.   Harold was one of the best known men in the commercial life of West Yorkshire at that time.  Managing director of James France & Co. Ltd., Albert Mills, Saville Town, Dewsbury which was business founded by his great uncle James France.  He was also managing director of Messrs Brown & Co. Ltd., a chemical manufacturer and as such on many committees connected with this trade.  

Although Harold was well known in commercial life, he only entered the “municipal life” in 1933 when he had been elected to represent St. John’s West Ward on Dewsbury Town Council, although he had been a prominent figure in other public activities.   He had close associations with Dewsbury and District General Infirmary and was president of the infirmary board for two years.  He had been chairman of the buildings committee responsible for the erection of the new infirmary in the 1920s. 

New Mayor and Mayoress of Dewsbury with their two sons, Yorkshire Post 1939

He followed in his father’s footsteps when he became Dewsbury’s Lord Mayor in November 1939. At his installation as Mayor a Christmas card that had been sent by his father to one of the local men serving in the Great War was produced.  It had been sent to Arthur Sugden who was leader of the local Labour Party in 1939 and who was seconding Harold’s appointment as Mayor.  He recalled that the card had also included a “most acceptable monetary gift.” Leeds Mercury 10 November 1939. 

Leeds Mercury 9 November 1939

Subsequent to his installation as Mayor, his wife, Lady Mayoress held an “at home” in Dewsbury Town Hall in December. The Mayor’s reception rooms and other parts of the town hall were specially decorated for the event by the “Corporation Parks Department” and between 300 and 350 guests attended.  Yorkshire Post 6 December 1939.

Harold had many roles in Dewsbury, public and private, throughout his life, member and then President of the Dewsbury Chamber of Commerce, President of the Woollen Carpet Yarn Spinner’s Association, member of Dewsbury and Saville Cricket Club as well as an active freemason.  He had previously been captain of the Dewsbury and Saville Hockey team.     He gave his time and money generously to deserving causes in the area including kicking off a Red Cross charity football match in December 1939.  He was a member of the committee and president at one time of the St. John’s West Ward Old Folks Treat.

When he died in 1940 hundreds of people attended his funeral at Dewsbury Parish church and the Yorkshire Post reported that over 200 wreath were carried on the back of two lorries to the grave. Many public figures including local MPs, businessmen, Freemasons and civic heads of neighbouring towns were present to pay their respects. The cortege took a detour to pass the Albert Mills, home of James France & Co, where he had been managing director. A detachment of the Dewsbury Borough Police, Special Constables and Auxiliary Firemen joined the cortege on route and then formed a guard of honour as the coffin was borne by members of the Police Force into the church.   A long list of mourners was given in the Yorkshire Post including many names from the Conservative Club. Yorkshire Post 21 February 1940

Cuthbert Mosby Hartley was the manager of the Black Swan Hotel in Brighouse in 1940 but had moved two years previously from his home town of Dewsbury where he had been a member and President of the Dewsbury Conservative Club from 1934 to 1936. He had served with the Royal Engineers in WW1 and had been wounded in 1917.  Cuthbert was a founder member of the Dewsbury Amateur Operatic Society where he played many leading comedic roles. Yorkshire Post 7 December 1940

Frank Hemming Dwyer was honorary solicitor for the club.  He was principal in the family firm of Dwyer & Sons Solicitors in Dewsbury where he had joined his father 1913.  At the outbreak of the First World War he served in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders returning to the family business after the war ended and becoming head of the firm when his father died in 1922.  Frank took a prominent part in local politics and became a member of Dewsbury Town Council in 1923 and an alderman in 1931.  Frank retired from the council in 1937 but returned to it in 1940.  His other interests included Rugby League and he was president of the Dewsbury Rugby League Club.

John Edward Haigh was a President of the Club.  He was the owner of a coal merchants firm, J. B. Sykes, Bond Street, Dewsbury; a former President of the Heavy Woollen District Coal Merchants Association and a member of the executive of the Federation of Coal Merchants.