Background
John Turner Walton Newbold was born in Culcheth, Lancashire, on 8 May 1888, and was educated at Buxton College and the University of Manchester.
John Turner Walton Newbold was born in Culcheth, Lancashire, on 8 May 1888, and was educated at Buxton College and the University of Manchester.
Early years
On leaving university, Newbold lectured in history and politics, and was engaged in industrial and economic research. In 1908, he joined the Fabian Society, connected with the Labour Party, and then the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1910. In line with the ILP"s pacifist position on World War I, he joined the Number Conscription Fellowship, and was a conscientious objector, although he was in any case found physically unfit for military service.
He did a great deal of research into the arms trade and its international connections in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
Political career
In 1917 Newbold joined the Labour educational Plebs" League and the British Socialist Party. By 1920, he was a committed communist, stating "my loyalty, at any rate, is now - as it has been for two and a half years - first and foremost to the position of the Third International".
In the 1922 United Kingdom general election, Newbold was elected to represent the Motherwell constituency in the House of Commons. He received the support of the Labour Party, but unlike many other Communist candidates, including Shapurji Saklatvala who was elected in the same general election, he stood under the label "Communist".
Additionally, he was refused permission to take the Labour whip and to sit with the Labour group.
As such, he is sometimes counted as the first Communist Member of Parliament in Britain, although others cite Cecil L"Estrange Malone, who converted from the Liberal Party in 1920 as the first Communist Member of Parliament. Newbold was sometimes seen as ineffective in Parliament, mocked by many other MPs for his old and frequently dirty clothing, but focused on producing propaganda for the Communist Party. He lost his seat in the 1923 United Kingdom general election, after just over a year in Parliament. In 1928 Newbold joined the Social Democratic Federation, and edited its journal, Social Democrat, from 1929 until 1931, when he supported the National Labour split from Labour.
He stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate in Epping in the 1929 United Kingdom general election.
In the same year he was appointed to the Macmillan Enquiry into the operation of banking in the United Kingdom. Death and legacy
Newbold died in February 1943, aged 54.
Increasingly disillusioned with communism, he resigned from the party in 1924 and rejoined the Labour Party.
32nd United Kingdom Parliament]
In 1921 he resigned from the ILP and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, becoming a member of its first central committee.
