James Stones died on 17 September 1935 shortly after being invited to contest Farnworth again at the General Election, which was clearly imminent. Until 1918 the Lancashire district of Farnworth, which lies on the River Irwell and River Croal, had been part of the Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth parliamentary constituency. It had become a separate seat for the 1918 election and had initially been won by the Conservatives. However, Labour took it in a three cornered contest in 1922 and held it in 1923, 1924 and 1929. The victor on the last occasion was Guy Rowson. With 21,857 votes, he had comfortably defeated Dame Mary Pickford, the Conservative candidate, by 11,214 votes with the Liberal a close third. Stones had a long record of public and social service in his native Farnsworth that made him a good choice to fight the seat. Whether he could have won it had a Liberal remained in the field must be open to doubt, but with the National Government in being and no Liberal candidate in the field, the Liberals in the constituency had to decide whether their opposition to a protectionist Conservative outweighed their dislike and distrust of the Labour party.
The great majority evidently plumped for Stones and in a straight fight with Labour, he totaled 22,460 votes, taking the seat from Rowson by a majority of 2,997. Clearly, had he survived, he would have had a hard fight to hold the seat; as it was Rowson regained it in a three cornered contest by 5,201.
Stones might well have done better than the new Conservative candidate since he was a working class Conservative through and through, one well respected in the locality and, unusually perhaps, active in the co-operative movement.
He was born in New Bury, Farnworth on 6 April 1868, the son of a collier, Thomas Stones. His father lost his sight in a shot accident at the jack Pit, opposite Century Mill, and at the age of eight, Stones found himself leading his father round the little Hulton district in connection with the yeast business his father had established. As he later told the Commons, he knew something of the life of colliers as he happened to be the “son of a collier, who lost his sight in the pit, and whom I had to lead about the roads for something like 19 years.”[1]
Stones was educated at St James’s School, New Bury and he began his career as a boy on the old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in the booking office of the Moses Gate station at Bolton and later became the senior clerk there. He transferred to Liverpool and then became the outward abstract clerk in the Bolton parcels office and relief booking clerk. When J.H. Thomas claimed to be the only railwayman in the House, Stones was quick to remind him that he had spent more than four decades as a railwayman.
When his father died, he briefly left the railways to take on his father’s yeast business, but after two years returned to the railway to work as a cashier in the accountants department at the company’s works at Horwich. He eventually became Paymaster to the works, responsible for dealing with ｣12,000 in wages and salaries each week. He retired in 1928 after completing forty three years service.
His interest in politics had led him to stand successfully for the Farnworth Urban District Council in 1907 as an independent Conservative and he remained on the council until 1928. He was the first chairman of its housing committee.
He took on the chairmanship of the Urban District Council in the difficult years of the war, serving from 1915 until 1918, and it was said that during that time he attended no less than 2,440 meetings. He chaired sixteen committees, including the Derby Scheme Military Tribunal, the War Savings Committee, War Pensions and Food Control. He helped raise more than ｣200,000 in war loans, and it was later recalled that in one period of three weeks, he raised ｣1,300 for prisoners of war and relief of the needy. Under the Derby scheme he personally sore in 3,240 men and the railway allowed him 64 days special leave to carry out his war work. Amongst other gifts when he gave up the chair were a roll to desk, a silver tea and coffee service, a typewriter, a gold watch and a set of pipes.
He was appointed a magistrate in 1919 and from 1917 until 1930 chaired the Farnworth and District Local Employment Committee, He was dismissed by the Minister of Labour, Margaret Bondfield, when he was adopted as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Farnworth, accepting his dismissal with dignity, but also a fair amount of resentment.
His local standing is best evidenced by the fact that he was asked to unveil the war memorial in Farnworth Park in November 1924.
He was selected by the local Conservative Association to fight Farnworth in 1930 and was successful when the national Government went to the country in the following year. He made his maiden speech at the third attempt on 23 June 1932, forthright in his condemnation of Labour’s nerve in moving a vote of censure on the Government when they had let the country down so badly. He spoke rarely and for the most part was a loyal supporter of the Government. However, he was far from uncritical of the harshness of the means test and was amongst those Conservatives who voted with the Labour Party in May 1933 when the Government decided to tax the undistributed profits of the Co-operative Societies.
He was also amongst the Lancashire Members who sought in the summer of 1934 to raise in the Commons the unrest of the Lancashire Police over the savage disciplinary penalties imposed by Lancashire’s Chief Constable.
His final speech in the House was also an act of rebellion. He had loyally supported the Government of India Bill, but on 30 April 1933, conscious that no fewer than fourteen mills had closed in his constituency, he joined with other Lancashire members in trying to add a new clause that would allow the establishment of an independent and impartial Indian Tariff Board. With both labour and the Liberals voting with the Government, the rebels were crushed by 52 votes to 221.
Amongst his other activities, he was a member of the Board of Management of the Farnworth and Kearsley Co-operative Society.
A staunch churchman, he worshipped at St James, sang in the choir, was the Vicar’s Churchwarden and read the lessons for twenty years. It was reported that he played a full part in all the social movements within the parish.
He was also a keen sportsman. He helped found the old Gordon Cricket Club at Farnworth and played for it. A skilled slow bowler, he was noted for taking seven for three in an away match against Astley Bridge, when their opponents were skittled out for six. He was both Chairman and President of the Farnworth Social Circle Cricket Club and also the Chairman of the Farnworth Swimming Club and President of the Highfield Tennis Club.
Although Who’s Who gave his home as being in Worsley, he died at 11 Stewart Avenue, Farnworth at the age of 64 on 17 September 1935.
[1] Hansard 23 June 1932