William Mellor was a left-wing 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...

 journalist.

Mellor joined the Daily Herald in 1913 as a journalist, and was imprisoned during the First World War as a conscientious objector

Conscientious objector

A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....

, returning to the Herald on his release. A Guild Socialist during the 1910s, he worked closely with G. D. H. Cole

G. D. H. Cole

George Douglas Howard Cole was an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. As a libertarian socialist he was a long-time member of the Fabian Society and an advocate for the cooperative movement...

, founding the National Guilds League with him in 1915. He was a founder-member of the Communist Party of Great Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 in 1920, but resigned in 1924. He became editor of the Herald in 1926, succeeding George Lansbury

George Lansbury

George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....

 when the Trades Union Congress

Trades Union Congress

The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...

 took over the paper, and was fired in 1930 soon after Odhams Press

Odhams Press

Odhams Press was a British publishing firm. Originally a newspaper group, founded in 1890, it took the name Odham's Press Ltd in 1920 when it merged with John Bull magazine. By 1937 it had founded the first colour weekly, Woman, for which it set up and operated a dedicated high-speed print works...

 took half-ownership with the TUC. He was the first editor of Tribune

Tribune (magazine)

Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...

 in 1937-38 and was sacked after falling out with Stafford Cripps

Stafford Cripps

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production...

 over the latter’s proposals for a Popular Front

Popular front

A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...

 of socialist and non-socialist parties against fascism. For the last 10 years of his life, though married with a family, he conducted an affair with the young Barbara Castle

Barbara Castle

Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn , PC, GCOT was a British Labour Party politician....

.

Works

• (with G. D. H. Cole) The Meaning of Industrial Freedom, 1918
• Direct Action, 1920.
• The co-operative movement and the fight for socialism, 1933

External links

• William Mellor at Spartacus Educational