John Holmes (1815–1894) was a radical campaigner in the city of Leeds in the mid 19th Century. A prosperous draper by profession, he was nevertheless very active in campaigning for workers' rights and was instrumental in founding the Leeds Co-operative Society (President 1862–64) and its precursor, the People's Flour Mill.[1] His writing on the value of cooperatives attracted attention from major figures such as Edwin Chadwick, who cited his work,[2] and John Stuart Mill, with whom he corresponded.

Holmes's essays argue that the costs and quality of the co-op bread compared favourably with the private sector due to economies of scale and saving marketing costs and it provided a way to avoid adulteration of flour.[3] On reading a paper sent to him Mill wrote:

"Your success & that of the Rochdale Association proves that there are at least two bodies of workpeople to be found who are sufficiently free from shortsighted selfishness—for that is really all that is required—to be capable of succeeding in such an enterprise, and the results, economically considered, as exhibited in your paper, are so advantageous that they can hardly fail to call forth imitators"[4]

Other correspondents included John Ruskin and Holmes' name is also recorded as a correspondent of Marx's International Workingmen's Association, the First International.[5]

He wrote on the history of Leeds and was a contributor to "Old Yorkshire".[6][7]

He was also a serious antiquarian and collected antiquities on an expedition to the Near East. This trip followed the death in 1881 of his first wife. His collection was later acquired by the Leeds City Museum[7] and is now in Abbey House.[8] He also sponsored archeological digs by his friend Thomas Bachouse Sandwith, Vice Consul in Cyprus.[9]

There were no surviving children from his first wife Sarah Ann (née Dale, d. 1881) who he had married in 1839, but he subsequently married Ada Higgins with whom he had two sons: Samuel (b. 1883) and Alfred (b. 1887).

Notes

  1. ↑ Holyoake, G. J. "The Jubilee History of the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society 1847-97".
  2. ↑ Chadwick, Edwin. "The Health of Nations Vol 1". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)p.411
  3. ↑ John Holmes "The Economic and moral advantages of Co-operation in the provision of food instanced in the People's Flour Mill Society at Leeds and in the Rochdale Co-operative Pioneers' Store" : A paper... partially read before the British Association for the Advancement of Social Science, at Birmingham, 15 October 1857. Leeds : printed by David Green, [1857]
  4. ↑ "John Stuart Mill to John Holmes, 19 January 1859". Online Library of Liberty.
  5. ↑ "The Minute Book of the General Council August 1868". Marxist Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012.
  6. ↑ "Leeds, West Riding, Yorkshire - The 1872-72 Leeds Directory". Blanck Family History.
  7. 1 2 "Wooden shabti". Leeds Museums & Galleries. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013.
  8. ↑ "Abbey House Museum, John Holmes Collection".
  9. ↑ "John Holmes". Ancient Cypriot art in Leeds.

Further reading

  • "John Ruskin: a Reminiscence," by John Holmes, in the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, Weekly Supplement, 17 April 1886.
  • The Health of Nations Vol 1: A Review of the Works of Edwin Chadwick, with a Biographical Dissertation, Edwin Chadwick p. 411
  • John Holmes (1864). People's future: building societies, co-operative societies, and model cottages societies. LSE Library. JSTOR 60219481.
  • John Holmes (1872). A sketch of the history of Leeds : from pre-historic times to 1872 A.D. Leeds: McCorquodale and Co.
  • John Fletcher Clews Harrison "Learning and Living 1790-1960" (Page 119) Taylor & Francis, 18 Feb 1994
  • John Holmes (1860). The economic advantages of co-operation substantiated : A letter addressed to the Rev. Norman Macleod, ... proving the truth of the large profits from co-operative economy, as stated at the Glasgow meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science; in reply to the objections of a practical miller. David Green.
  • The Judge judged : a letter to Mr. Baron Cleasby upon his address on the Thorncliffe Riots, March 24th, 1870, etc. F. R. Spark. 1870.
  • John Holmes (1874). A plea for arbitration : a letter to the West Yorkshire miners.
  • John Holmes (1873). The second great step of co-operative beneficence. Co-operative Printing Society.
  • John Holmes (1871). Notes of a visit to the pre-historic remains at Ilkley, on the 14th April, 1871, from the 'Leeds mercury' of the 20th. Edward Baines and Sons.
  • John Holmes (1886). Lord Houghton : a reminiscence. James Mann.
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