The Pacifist Directing Manager of Shirebrook Colliery Company

The Shirebrook Colliery Company was established in 1894 to work the pit at Shirebrook, on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border. Arnold Lupton was the company’s first managing director and was a controversial figure. With views linked to anti-vaccination, free religion and pacifism, it is clear to see why he was not a popular man.

His role as the managing director only lasted four years but ended on a sour note. He had to leave following a rather disastrous 17 week wage dispute in 1898 with employees. The anger of miners, who were striking because of poor working conditions and low wages, was made worse when miners from Glasgow and Wales were brought in to replace the striking miners. Eventually they were sent home and Lupton resigned. Ironically, in his later role as an MP for Sleaford in Lincolnshire, he was against the use of Chinese Labour in South African mines, seeing it as replacing the jobs of the more suitable white men. For this interest in international as well as domestic mining, he was known across the Commonwealth.

Abstract of title of Shirebrook Colliery Ltd to land and premises at Shirebrook, 1809-1891, D3302/9

Originally from Leeds, Arnold showed a keen interest in the mining industry. He had many different roles in the mining industry with many connections both in England and abroad. During his time at Shirebrook, he also held the title of Inspector of Mining between 1885 and 1898 and was Professor of Mining until 1905. Even after his connection with Shirebrook had ended, he still continued life as a mining agent, a type of manager involved in the technical and mechanical running of a colliery and wrote many books and pamphlets relating to the industry.

Yet despite what already seems like an interesting life, it is actions during the First World War that contain the most controversy. As a pacifist he was against the war, writing pamphlets on his views, especially one entitled Voluntary Service versus Compulsory Service, written in September 1915. Inciting pacifism was a legal offence, one for which he received a 6 month prison sentence in February 1918 for distributing other pacifist leaflets. The printer he used was fined £90, (around £2600 in today’s money).

More of Lupton’s activities during the First World War came out in the press following the end of the war. In 1922, Arnold Lupton attended an arbitration court made up of a mix of English and German people, to try and claim some money back from a pre-war deal settled in 1913. The deal comprised Lupton leasing an area of coal in the Nottinghamshire coalfields to the German industrialist Hugo Stinnes in return for £2000 (nearly £118,000 in today’s money). The deal mentioned related to Lupton’s role in establishing the Anglo-German Northern Union Mining Company to oversee the development of Haworth Colliery on the Nottinghamshire/South Yorkshire border. Despite the development of the colliery and the Germans who worked it being interned during the way, the German side had refused to pay Lupton his money. The arbitration court ruled that Stinnes was to pay the £2000 and 5% interest dating back to 1913, as well as £50 for costs to Lupton. When these dealings with Germans were leaked to the press, alongside the background of the horrors of the First World War, the public viewed it in an extremely bad light.

Wells/Sitwell dispute papers: Notes of Arnold Lupton, Mining Engineer, early 20th cent, NCB/A/JGW/2/6

Bibliography:

‘English Pacifist Punished’, New York Times, 17 February 1918

‘German Industrialist Ordered to Live Up to Pre-War Contract with British Mining Engineer’, New York Times, 25 June 1922

‘Lunch for Mourners: Direction in a Will’, The Mercury, Austrialia, 24 Apr 1931

Amos, D. and Braber, N., Bradwell’s Images of Coal Mining in the East Midlands (Sheffield: Bradwell Books, 2017)

Chesterton, G. K., The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Volume 20 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001)

King’s Speech (Motion for an Address), February 1906, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1906/feb/20/kings-speech-motion-for-an-address#S4V0152P0_19060220_HOC_186

Lupton, A., Voluntary Service versus Compulsory Service (September 1915)

Workmen’s Compensation Bill, December 1906, Third Reading, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1906/dec/13/workmens-compensation-bill#S4V0167P0_19061213_HOC_309

Mining the Seams is a Wellcome Trust funded project aiming to catalogue coal mining documents, originally held by the National Coal Board, so they can eventually be viewed by the public. Alongside the Warwickshire County Record Office, the project aims to focus on the welfare and health services provided to miners.