Edward Hartley

Edward Robertshaw Hartley (25 May 1855 – 18 January 1918) was a British socialist politician.

Hartley began work in a mill at the age of ten, before becoming a warehouse clerk and then a butcher. He became an active socialist in 1885, in reaction to serious unemployment in his home town of Bradford. He was a founder member of the Bradford Labour Union and the Independent Labour Party (ILP). He stood for the party in Dewsbury at the 1895 general election, taking 10.4% of the vote, but was not elected. At the 1900 general election, he was nominated in Pudsey, but withdrew on the eve of the poll.

Hartley was intended as the ILP candidate for the 1902 Dewsbury by-election, with the support of the local trades council and the Labour Representation Committee, but the rival Social Democratic Federation (SDF) nominated Harry Quelch. Initially, neither candidate would withdraw, but the trades council convinced the ILP to drop Hartley's candidacy. Quelch did not gain the support of the local labour movement, nor of the ILP leadership. Angered by what he saw as pandering to the right wing of the labour movement, Hartley actively supported Quelch's candidacy and joined the SDF. He won 22.8% of the vote, but again missed election. He next stood for the party in the 1908 Newcastle by-election, then back in Bradford East in the January 1910 general election. On the outbreak of World War I, Hartley became strongly pro-war and left the SDF to join the British Workers League, in the process losing most of his political support. He retired to Shelf, West Yorkshire where he died and is buried.