Donovan Swailes

Donovan Swailes (born August 12, 1892 in Leeds, England; died December 10, 1984) was a politician and musician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation from 1945 to 1959.

Swailes was raised in Leeds, and worked in the textile industry. His father was a coal miner, who later worked in a woollen mill. His mother was active in the Salvation Army and the suffragette movement, and served time in prison for smashing windows in a London department store during a demonstration. The younger Swailes played the trombone for the Salvation Army and took courses from the University of Leeds. During World War I, he worked as a musician at the Opera House in Cork, Ireland, and later for the Australian Navy. After the war, he toured New Zealand with a professional band.

He moved to Canada in 1920, and became involved in the country's labour and social-democratic movements. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1925, and later became the first president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. In 1943, he represented Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council at the Convention of the American Federation of Labour. In the same year, he was elected secretary-treasurer of the Manitoba CCF. He served on the board of directors of the Winnipeg Musicians Union, the Executive Committee of Family Bureau, and the Advisory Board of the Manitoba Department of Education.

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