Richard Davies

W. Richard Davies (1862 – February 1938) was a Welsh trade unionist and political activist. The president of one union, and general secretary of another, he also served as a city councillor and contested numerous Parliamentary elections.

Biography Born in South Wales, Davies worked as a shop assistant in Cardiff for a couple of years, then became a journalist, focusing on reporting the labour movement. By 1897, he was an organiser for the Navvies, Bricklayers' Labourers and General Labourers' Union based at Barry. He was imprisoned for six weeks after being convicted of intimidating a strikebreaker. He retained the backing of the union, and after his release, was elected as its president. In 1898, Davies moved to Leicester, to become the Midland Counties organiser of the Navvies' Union. However, the union's general secretary, John Ward, refused to allow him to see the union's books. Davies took Ward to court, but Ward did not attend, and the union's executive committee expelled Davies from the union.

Davies won election as a Labour Party member of Leicester City Council. Davies was elected to replace him, and managed to increase the membership of the union. In 1908, the union selected him as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, once a suitable constituency was located, but no seat was found, and he stood down as general secretary of the union in 1913. In 1933, he gave a speech in the town which the Western Morning News reported as being anti-semitic. The Labour Party's national leadership rebuked him for this, but he maintained his position and was therefore dropped as a candidate.

In February 1938, Davies suffered a fall, and died from resulting complications, aged 75.