George Fletcher

George Henry Fletcher (7 September 1879 – 8 June 1958) was a British communist activist and baker.

Life Born in Horncastle in Lincolnshire, Fletcher completed an apprenticeship as a baker and, after a short period working as a miner, found work at Simmersons bakery in Sheffield. There, he started a branch of the Amalgamated Union of Operative Bakers, and became its chair.

In 1898, Fletcher joined the Sheffield Socialist Society (SSS), and around this time, he also started a small bakery of his own. In 1902, he worked with other SSS members to form a Brightside, Sheffield branch of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). He was an agreed joint Labour candidate in the 1905 local elections in Burngreave, losing by only four votes. He also began speaking regularly at open air meetings for the party. In 1910, he was fined 40 shillings for speaking in High Hazels Park; soon after, he was sentenced to 56 days in prison for speaking in Hillsborough Park. In 1921, he was sentenced to three months in prison on charges of sedition for speaking in favour of a miners' strike.

Although Fletcher chaired the local CPGB branch, he was adopted as a Labour Party candidate and was elected to the Board of Guardians in 1922, representing Darnall, and acting as the board's treasurer.

Fletcher retired near the start of World War II, but continued to support the CPGB financially.

Fletcher's son, also named George, was a founding member of the Young Communist League in 1921. In 1923, the father and son set up a small venture, running bread vans to supply their own shops. By 1999 it had grown into a large, profitable business that was sold by their heir, Paul Fletcher, to Northern Foods for £40 million.