William Parrott

William Parrott (18 December 1843 – 9 November 1905) was a British coalminer, trade union official and Liberal–Labour (Lib–Lab) politician.

Parrott was born at Row Green, a village in Somerset but his parents soon moved to Yorkshire. Parrott had no formal education and was essentially self-taught. He began work in a brickyard at the age of eight years. Aged nine, he was working in a factory and just before his tenth birthday he started work at Methley Colliery as a pit-boy. In 1869 he had married Eliza Thompson of Methley and they had a son and three daughters.

In 1872 he became the first checkweighman elected by the miners of Good Hope Pit, Normanton Common. From this time onwards he was drawn more and more into trade union work. In 1876 he was elected assistant secretary of the West Yorkshire Miners Association. Held this office until 1881 when the West and South Yorkshire Miners Associations were amalgamated to form the Yorkshire Miners Association of which Parrott was appointed agent, a post he held for 20 years. During this time he attended the first ever international conference of coal miners, held in Brussels. He became general-secretary of the Yorkshire Miners Association in 1904. Parrott was one of four men who were credited with the establishment of the Yorkshire Miners Association as it existed at the time of his death, the others being Ben Pickard, (Lib-Lab member of Parliament for Normanton from 1885–1904), J Frith and E Cowey.

In January 1894 Parrott was appointed a representative of the Yorkshire Miners at a conciliation board meeting held at Westminster Palace Hotel to settle a dispute over miners’ wages following a report by a committee headed by Lord Rosebery. Parrott remained a member of the miners’ side of the conciliation board until the time of his death. Despite the work of the board, by 1896, Parrott was warning that miners had given their representatives authority to arrange strikes if the latest round of wage increases were not met and if mines were closed and men thrown out of work. He addressed a meeting of miners saying that Yorkshire was fully prepared to meet the emergency, that the men were well-organised and had both the funds and courage necessary. They were as determined as ever to fight for the maintenance and principle of the living wage.

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