From Crow-Scaring to Westminster: An Autobiography
George Edwards
George Edwards
From Crow-Scaring to Westminster: An Autobiography
FOREWORD
By the
Right Honourable LORD AILWYN OF HONINGHAM, P.C
(Ex-Minister of Agriculture)
(Chairman of the Norfolk County Council)
Norfolk has produced many men of whom it may be proud and among them is the author of this book.
I am glad to know that his friends have induced Mr. George Edwards to write the story of his life, and it is with great pleasure that I have assented to his request to write a few introductory words, as I have known him for a number of years and been associated with him in a great deal of public work.
On many subjects George Edwards and I may not agree, but on two points at least we are united – in love for Norfolk and in devotion to the interests of agriculture.
Born at Marsham in 1850, the son of a farm worker, George Edwards is a notable example of the way in which adverse circumstances may be overcome by determination and natural ability. The greater part of his life has been devoted to efforts to improve the conditions of the class to which he belongs.
He may, on looking back in the light of experience, reflect – as most men on reaching his age must reflect – that he has made some mistakes, but all who know him will agree that if he has done so, they have been mistakes of the head and not of the heart.
His honesty of purpose and sincerity of aim, his straightforwardness and conscientiousness, his strong religious principles, are recognized by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance.
He is a valued member of the Norfolk County Council and a respected Justice of the Peace.
As one of the representatives of Norfolk in the House of Commons, he enjoys the confidence and respect of men of all classes, including many who do not share his political views.
It is with sincere pleasure and the most hearty goodwill that I commend to all who appreciate the record of a strenuous career spent in the pursuit of worthy aims this self-told story of the life of a distinguished Norfolk man.
В В В В AILWYN.
August 1922.
INTRODUCTION
This book is more than the record of an adventurous and useful life. It is an outline of the conditions of labour in our greatest national industry during the last seventy years. It is the story of years of struggle to raise the status and standard of life of the agricultural workers of England from a state of feudal serfdom to the relatively high level now reached, mainly through the organization of the Agricultural Labourers' Union. In that long struggle no single person has done more disinterested, solid and self-sacrificing work than my old friend and colleague George Edwards. The Union which he founded some sixteen years ago and in the ranks of which, at the age of seventy-two, he still plays a vigorous and important part, is but the latest fruit of generations of effort at the organization and education of the workers of rural England.
Born in Norfolk in 1850 George Edwards commenced farm work at the age of six. His long life of struggle against tremendous odds should be, and I am certain will be, an encouragement and an inspiration to many whose opportunities and means of social service are greater than his have been. And surely no greater service can be rendered in our time to the cause of national well-being than work devoted to the establishment of labour conditions in the field of British agriculture in keeping with the vital importance of that great industry.
It would be an unprofitable speculation to try to think of what the author of this book might have achieved had his early life been spent under happier conditions. Poverty, servitude, oppression, the lack of what is regarded as education, as well as the active hostility of those who sought in order to protect their menaced interests to crush him, have all been factors in the life of George Edwards. But in spite of adverse circumstances, and it may be because of adverse circumstances, some men are capable of self-expression and refuse to be conquered. Ge