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Jimmy Thomas

The Right Honourable
James Henry Thomas
JH Thomas cigarette card.jpg
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office
22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924
Monarch George V
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by The Duke of Devonshire
Succeeded by Leo Amery
In office
25 August 1931 – 5 November 1931
Monarch George V
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by The Lord Passfield
Succeeded by Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister
In office
22 November 1935 – 22 May 1936
Monarch George V
Edward VIII
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by Malcolm MacDonald
Succeeded by William Ormsby-Gore
Personal details
Born 3 October 1874 (1874-10-03)
Newport, Monmouthshire
Died 21 January 1949 (1949-01-22) (aged 74)
London
Nationality British
Political party Labour
National Labour
Alma mater None

James Henry Thomas (3 October 1874 – 21 January 1949), sometimes known as Jimmy Thomas, was a British trade unionist and Labour (later National Labour) politician. He was involved in a political scandal involving budget leaks.

Thomas was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, the son of a young unmarried mother. He was raised by his grandmother and began work at twelve years of age, soon starting a career as a railway worker. He became an official of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and in 1913 helped to organise its merger with two smaller trade unions on the railways to form the National Union of Railwaymen (now part of the RMT). Thomas was elected NUR general secretary in 1916, a post he held until 1931.

Thomas was general secretary during the successful national rail strike of 1919 that was jointly called by the NUR and ASLEF against proposed wage reductions. In 1921 Thomas played a leading role in the Black Friday crisis, in which rail and transport unions failed to come to the aid of the mineworkers, who were facing wage reductions. Before the 1926 General Strike the TUC asked Thomas to negotiate with Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Government, but the talks were unsuccessful and the strike went ahead.


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