Samuel Henry Whitehouse

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Samuel Henry Whitehouse (1849–1919) was a British trade unionist. He was born in Swan Village, Staffordshire, and started work in a coal mine when he was eight. He joined his first strike at ten and, in the following years, had two accidents at the pit.

Whitehouse became active in the unions and, by 1867, was the secretary of his lodge. He was sacked for supporting a Liberal Party candidate in a local election that year. Out of work for several months, he learned to read and soon found work at another mine, where he was elected checkweighman. He also became the agent for the West Bromwich Miners’ Association, helped found the Amalgamated Association of Miners, and was elected to the West Bromwich School Board. He also worked part-time for the Labour Tribune newspaper.

In 1886 the Midland Miners’ Federation was formed, and Whitehouse was its first secretary, serving for two years. He then took a full-time job as an agent for the Somerset Miners’ Association. He was taken to court by a local mine owner, lost the case, and refused to pay the fine, so bailiffs seized many of his possessions. He stayed in the post and greatly increased its members. Whitehouse represented Somerset at the founding conference of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain and served on its executive several times. He was elected to Radstock Urban District Council as a Liberal-Labour member, serving from 1893 to 1898. He retired from his union post in 1917 due to ill health and died in 1919 at the age of 70.