Wilfred Risdon

Wilfred Risdon (28 January 1896 – 11 March 1967) was a British political organiser and antivivisection campaigner. His life and career encompassed coal mining, trade union work, First World War service with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), political and animal welfare activism.

Wilfred Risdon was born in Bath, Somerset, England, on 28 January 1896, the youngest of ten surviving children of Edward George Fouracres Risdon (1855–1931), a bespoke boot and shoe maker born in Devonport, Devon, and Louisa née Harris (1851–1911) from Exeter, Devon, who also worked intermittently as a shoe machinist. In his childhood, Wilfred Risdon is reputed to have been a devout Christian, because his father was an adherent of the Plymouth Brethren: his grandfather committed suicide in 1862 when Edward Risdon was only 7 years old. This zealous Christianity undoubtedly influenced Wilfred Risdon's later career. Although the 1911 census describes Risdon as working in bookbinding, having presumably finished schooling at the age of 14, he soon started working at one of the local Somerset collieries: although the work would have been physically demanding for such a young boy, the wages might have been marginally better, especially after a few years' experience (assuming he survived).

At that time, many Somerset coal miners moved to South Wales for better career prospects, and at some stage Risdon joined the exodus. It was in Wales that he became involved in union work, and either before or during the First World War, he aspired to a South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF) scholarship for a place at the Central Labour College, in competition with a colleague, Aneurin Bevan; Bevan was awarded the place, in 1919, while Risdon was still in Germany with the army of occupation (British Army of the Rhine). Risdon finished his war service with the rank of sergeant, but had also suffered shell shock, which affected his heart for the rest of his life. He decided to become a political organiser, and as a result of his association with trade unionists, his inclination was socialist.

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