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Mortimer Grimshaw (1824 or 1825 – 22 December 1869) was an English political activist, strike leader and cotton weaver. He briefly attained national fame in the 1850s due to his part in the Preston strike of 1853–54. A large man whose face was marked by smallpox, he was renowned for his oratory, which earned him the nickname of the "Thunderer of Lancashire".〔 〕 The son of a radical public speaker and orator, Grimshaw's early campaigns were centred on the improvement of working conditions for the mill-workers in the village of Royton and enforcement of the Factory Acts. He was an outspoken critic of the Whig Party and an advocate of the Chartist movement, in particular of their anti-Whig alliance with the Tory Party. Strikes among mill-workers began to break out during the early 1850s and Grimshaw one of the leaders, along with George Cowell, of the strike in Preston in 1853. The strikers were fruitless in their demands for a ten per cent wage increase, and Grimshaw found himself with no further role in the workers' unions. He and his fellow conspirators were charged with conspiring to prevent people working in the mills, although the charges were later dropped. Following the defeat in Preston, Grimshaw emigrated to the United States, where he became a supporter of the Confederacy. In 1861, he and Cowell attempted to intervene in a strike in Clitheroe but were branded "notorious scoundrels" by the weavers there for their parts in the Preston strike. The following year he joined a small group of Lancashire men who unsuccessfully attempted to rally support for the Confederates in northern England. After a period as a freelance industrial mediator, selling his services to mill owners and working against the unions he had once aligned with, he returned to his job as a power-loom weaver until his death from tuberculosis in 1869. Grimshaw and his activities were the basis for two of the author Charles Dickens' characters. ==Early life and career== Grimshaw was born in or around Great Harwood, Lancashire, in 1824 or 1825 and was one of six children brought up in a working-class family. His father, Thomas, had a reputation as a radical public speaker in the early part of the 19th century. Grimshaw initially worked as a cotton weaver before becoming a full-time activist and agitator. He first came to prominence in the village of Royton, near Oldham, in 1852 as a campaigner for the improvement and enforcement of the Factory Acts, to improve the working conditions of those employed in the cotton mills. In the same year he became editor of the anti-Whig broadsheet, the ''Royton Vindicator''. He criticised the suppression of local political activists and supported the alliance of the Chartist movement with the Tories against the Whigs.〔Dutton; King (1981), p. 46〕 Mill workers in England became increasingly disenchanted with improper practices by factory owners, long working hours and unsatisfactory conditions. During the early 1850s workers throughout the country began to campaign for higher wages and strikes were held in several towns and cities; brickmakers in Manchester struck in January while woollen mill operatives in the West Riding of Yorkshire went on strike two months later. Grimshaw himself was involved in a strike in Stockport, where workers were demanding a ten percent wage increase, in March 1853.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mortimer Grimshaw」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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