Early years John Turner Walton Newbold was born in
Culcheth,
Lancashire, on 8 May 1888, and was educated at
Buxton College and the
University of Manchester. 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
No 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. Whilst still a research student, he married fellow socialist
Marjory Neilson on 16 June 1916.
Political career In 1917 Newbold joined the Labour educational
Plebs' League and the
British Socialist Party (BSP). He had a number of articles published in
The Call, the paper of the BSP. 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 1921 he resigned from the ILP and joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain, becoming a member of its first
central committee. In the
1922 general election, Newbold was elected to represent the
Motherwell constituency in the
House of Commons. Locally his wife Marjory was well known in working class and socialist groups, from leading
socialist Sunday schools, and adult education and campaigns, and some say he was supported because he was 'Madge's man'. Newbold 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 MP in Britain, although others cite
Cecil L'Estrange Malone, who switched from the
Liberal Party in 1920, as the first Communist MP. Saklatvala was accepted into the
Labour Party's parliamentary caucus but while Newbold applied for the same he was rejected. This did not stop Saklatvala and Newbold from joint activity, however, and the pair attempted to raise the demands of the
unemployed and the cause of cheap
housing and lower rents whenever possible. Newbold wound up being suspended from the House in May 1923 over his actions with respect to the
Curzon ultimatum during the
French occupation of the Ruhr. 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 general election, after just over a year in Parliament. Increasingly disillusioned with communism, he resigned from the party in 1924 and rejoined the Labour Party. 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 general election. In the same year he was appointed to the
Macmillan Enquiry into the operation of
banking in the UK.
Death and legacy Newbold died in February 1943, aged 54. ==List of works==