John Beard

John Cecil Beard (9 December 1871 – 25 September 1950) was a British trade unionist and politician.

Life Beard was born in Ellerdine Heath in Shropshire in 1871, son of a farm labourer. His family were Primitive Methodists, whose local chapel ran an elementary day school at Ellerdine where Beard had his full-time education

He was a founder member of the Workers' Union in 1898, and it appointed him as its Shropshire organiser. In this role, after a failed attempt to organise in the Ironbridge coalfields By 1900, the union in Shropshire grew to 20 branches, although most had an ephemeral existence. In 1929/30, Beard served as President of the TUC, In 1915, Beard founded initially for the W.U.'s Midlands region a monthly magazine called The Record, which went national in 1916 and was later adopted by the TGWU.

Family Beard married Dora Cadman, of Old Park, Dawley, Shropshire, who was sister of Congregationalist minister and religious broadcaster Samuel Parkes Cadman. The couple had one son and five daughters.