Robert Edwards usually known as Bob Edwards, was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

ist and an 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...

 (ILP) and Labour Co-operative

Labour Co-operative

Labour and Co-operative describes those candidates in British elections standing on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party, based on a national agreement between the two parties....

 politician. He was a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) from 1955 to 1987.

Born in 1905, to docker parents, he was one of the youngest Labour councillors in Liverpool, becoming a councillor in 1927, aged 22. He also led an ILP Youth Delegation to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, where he met Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 and Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

. During the General Strike in 1926 he was a TUC messenger, delivering important messages to the Trade Unions Congress from individual unions.

In the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, he led the ILP Contingent

ILP Contingent

The British Independent Labour Party sent a small contingent to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The contingent fought with the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification and included George Orwell, who subsequently wrote about his experiences in his widely-read account Homage to Catalonia.-Contingent...

 in the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM

Poum

Poum is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The town of Poum is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore....

) on the Aragon

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

 front. They left Spain in May 1937.

Edwards was a leading member of the ILP after it split from the Labour

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...

 in the 1930 and 1940s, serving as the party's Chairman from 1943 to 1948.

Between 1947 and 1971 he was the General Secretary of the Chemical Workers' Union

Chemical Workers' Union

Chemical Workers' Union may refer one of several trade unions:*Chemical Workers' Union *Chemical Workers' Union...

, and was also a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union

Transport and General Workers' Union

The Transport and General Workers' Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland - where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union - with 900,000 members...

.

As an ILP candidate, Edwards unsuccessfully contested Chorley

Chorley (UK Parliament constituency)

Chorley is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 at the 1935 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1935

The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...

, and Stretford

Stretford (UK Parliament constituency)

Stretford was a parliamentary constituency in North West England, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 at a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in 1939 and the Newport by-election in 1945

Newport by-election, 1945

The Newport by-election, 1945 was a parliamentary by-election held on 17 May 1945 for the British House of Commons constituency of Newport in Monmouthshire. It was the last by-election of the 1935-1945 Parliament....

 (where he won 45.5% of the votes).

He was elected as Labour Co-operative MP for Bilston

Bilston (UK Parliament constituency)

Bilston was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Bilston in what is now the southeast of the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands...

 in the 1955 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1955

The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...

. The constituency was abolished in 1974, so in the February 1974 election

United Kingdom general election, February 1974

The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

, he stood successfully for Wolverhampton South East which covers a similar area. In 1983, he became the oldest sitting British MP.

Edwards stood down in 1987 and was succeeded by Dennis Turner

Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston

Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston is a Labour and Co-operative politician in the United Kingdom and was a Member of Parliament from 1987 until 2005.-Early life:...

. The former Labour Party leader Michael Foot

Michael Foot

Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...

became the oldest sitting British MP after Edwards' retirement.

Edwards died in June 1990, aged 85, three years after his retirement from parliament.