George Barnsby

George J. Barnsby (–11 April 2010) was an English author and Socialist scholar.

Biography He was born and grew up in Battersea, Surrey. Following military service in India and Burma he studied at the London School of Economics where he obtained an economics degree enabling him to become a teacher. His interest in socialism dated back to his pre-war experiences and his convictions were strengthened by his military service.

In the late 1970s he took time off from teaching to study at University of Birmingham, producing two books, The Working Class Movement in the Black Country 1750–1867 (1977) and Social Conditions in the Black Country 1800–1900 (1980), which earned him an MA and a PhD.

He retired early due to heart problems and then wrote extensively on the history of Chartism, education, housing, the ideas of the Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, and the 1926 general strike in the Black Country. He also produced a major work in 1998, Socialism in Birmingham and the Black Country 1850–1939.