James Winstone was a British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 trade unionist

Born in Risca

Risca

Risca is a town of approximately 11,500 people in South Wales, within the Caerphilly County Borough and the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is today part of the Newport conurbation , though it is not a Ward of Newport City Council...

, Winstone worked from the age of eight, first at a local brickworks

Brickworks

A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....

, then at Risca United Colliery. He was elected checkweighman, and worked with William Brace

William Brace

William Brace was a Welsh trade unionist and Labour politician. Born in Risca, in the coal-mining district of Monmouthshire, he was one of six children of Thomas and Anne Brace. Brace briefly attended school before starting work at the local colliery, aged 12...

 to campaign against the sliding pay scale. As a result, he was a prominent founder member of the South Wales Miners' Federation

South Wales Miners' Federation

The South Wales Miners' Federation , nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for miners in South Wales.The union was founded on 24 October 1898, following the defeat of the South Wales miners' strike of 1898...

 (SWMF) in 1898.

Winstone was also active in the Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

, and was a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 lay preacher. He was elected for the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 to Risca Urban District Council, then to Abersychan

Abersychan

Abersychan is a settlement and community north of Pontypool in Torfaen, Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It has a population of 6,826.It lies in the narrow northern section of the Afon Lwyd valley...

 council, which he chaired in 1911. In 1907, he was elected to Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire is a county in south east Wales. The name derives from the historic county of Monmouthshire which covered a much larger area. The largest town is Abergavenny. There are many castles in Monmouthshire .-Historic county:...

 County Council. He stood at Monmouth Boroughs

Monmouth Boroughs (UK Parliament constituency)

Monmouth Boroughs was a parliamentary constituency consisting of several towns in Monmouthshire...

 at the 1906 UK general election, but received no backing from his union, and was not elected. In 1912, he was elected as Vice President of the SWMF, the first socialist to such a position. He was selected as the Labour candidate for the Merthyr by-election, 1915, the seat having previously been held by Keir Hardie

Keir Hardie

James Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

, but he was defeated by Charles Butt Stanton of the British Workers League

British Workers League

The British Workers League was a 'patriotic labour' group which was anti-socialist and pro-war.The league's origins lay in the 1915 split by the right-wing of the British Socialist Party, primarily over issues raised by the First World War...

, who had resigned as a miners' agent to run with Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 and Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 support as a pro-war independent labour candidate. In 1915, he replaced Brace as union president, serving until his death. He also stood in Merthyr

Merthyr (UK Parliament constituency)

Merthyr was a borough constituency centred on the town of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 at the 1918 UK general election, but was again unsuccessful. In 1920, he chaired Monmouthshire County Council.