Thomas Douglas Hamilton Garside

Thomas Douglas Hamilton Garside (1855–1927) was a Scottish mathematics professor and trade union leader. The son of a Scottish railroad contractor, he became an evangelical preacher in Northern Ireland, before moving to the United States. In Philadelphia, he joined the socialist movement and became an organiser for the Knights of Labor. By 1889, he had gravitated towards anarchism and was expelled from the Socialist Labor Party of America. The following year, he led a cloakmakers' strike in New York City, along with Emma Goldman and Joseph Barondess. After the strike achieved its goals, he returned to Philadelphia, where he allegedly became a United States Marshal. By 1893, he had returned to Britain, where he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and organised for tenants' rights. During World War I, he joined the Liberal Party, within which he agitated for welfare and pensions for veterans. He died in London in 1927.

Biography Early life Thomas Douglas Hamilton Garside was born in Lancashire, in 1855, the son of a Scottish railroad contractor. He was educated at Stockholm University and remained in the city after graduation, teaching mathematics at a secondary school. He then followed his father's wishes that he become a preacher and moved to Northern Ireland, where he preached the gospel for seven years.

Socialist activism in the United States In 1881, he immigrated to the United States, initially settling in Baltimore before moving to Philadelphia, where he worked as a tutor for aspiring college students. Before long, the former evangelical preacher had become a socialist. He soon quit his tutoring job and moved into trade union organising, joining the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) and the Knights of Labor.

On 8 May 1884, At the second conference of the ILP in 1894, Garside represented the Women's National Assotiation of the ILP as a delegate from Manchester; he proposed that the ILP headquarters be moved to Manchester, which he pointed out had been the centre of the independent labour movement.

During World War I, Garside and Liberal Party MP James Hogge became concerned with the welfare of veterans. In mid-January 1917, Garside and Hogge established the Naval and Military War Pensions and Welfare league, a national organisation created to push for military pensions after demobilisation. In 1918, Hogge and Garside published a report on the matter, in the book War Pensions and Allowances. Garside ran as the Liberal candidate in Ilford for the 1918 United Kingdom general election, but came last place with 13.7% of the vote, losing to the Conservative candidate Peter Griggs. After the war, he served as secretary of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers (NFDDSS).

Thomas Hamilton Garside died in the London borough of Chelsea, on 21 October 1927.

Selected works A Critique of the Present Industrial System (1889) The Horrors of Ancoats (1893) Mr Nobody, of Nowhere, and Nan (1895, The Market Street Press Works) War Pensions And Allowances (1918, Hodder and Stoughton)