Robert Applegarth was a prominent British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 trade unionist

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 and proponent of working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 causes.

Biography

Robert Applegarth was born in Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. His father was the captain of a whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

. He spent a brief period in a dame school

Dame school

A Dame School was an early form of a private elementary school in English-speaking countries. They were usually taught by women and were often located in the home of the teacher.- Britain :...

 but had no other formal education and began work in a shoemaker's

Shoemaking

Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...

 shop aged ten. He learned the skills of carpentry

Carpentry

A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....

, before moving to Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 where he met and married Mary Longmore, a farmer's daughter.

Applegarth moved to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in December 1854, seeking well paid employment, with only a half crown

Half crown (British coin)

The half crown was a denomination of British money worth half of a crown, equivalent to two and a half shillings , or one-eighth of a pound. The half crown was first issued in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI...

 in his possession. He lived with another immigrant from Sheffield for a time, and held a variety of jobs including master at a train station

Train station

A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

. He admired the democracy of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, but was appalled by slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

, and visited Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 to witness it for himself, where he met Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...

. By 1857, Applegarth was confident that he could support his wife in America so sent for her from Sheffield, but she was too ill to travel and so he returned to Sheffield. During the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Applegarth strongly supported the unionists

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

.

Once back in the United Kingdom he joined the Sheffield Carpenters Union, and rose to become their secretary. In 1861 the Sheffield Carpenters Union merged with the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners

Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners

The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners was a New Model Trade Union in the 1860s in the United Kingdom, representing carpenters and joiners....

 (ASCJ), and in 1862 was elected as general secretary of the union. The ASCJ was a New Model Union

New Model Union

New Model Trade Unions were a variety of Trade Unions prominent in the 1850s and 1860s in the UK. The term was coined by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in their History of Trade Unionism , although later historians have questioned how far New Model Trade Unions represented a 'new wave' of unionism, as...

, and Applegarth regularly met with other leading New Model Unionists in London, in what Sidney and Beatrice Webb

Beatrice Webb

Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield was an English sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer. Although her husband became Baron Passfield in 1929, she refused to be known as Lady Passfield...

 termed a junta.

Applegarth also became an executive member of the London Trades Council

London Trades Council

The London Trades Council was an early labour organisation, uniting London's trade unionists. Its modern successor organisation is the Greater London Association of Trades Councils...

 (LTC), and advocated a moderate approach to trade unionism with an emphasis on negotiations rather than strike action

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

, telling his fellow trade unionists to "Never surrender the right to strike, but be careful how you use a double-edged weapon". This stance lead to conflict with George Potter

George Potter

George Potter was a prominent British trade unionist.-Biography:George Potter was born in Kenilworth, where his father worked as a carpenter. He was educated for a short time at a local dame school, but left to work at a young age to supplement his father's income of three shillings a day...

, the founder of the LTC's journal The Bee-Hive

The Bee-Hive (journal)

The Bee-Hive was a trade unionist journal published weekly in the United Kingdom between 1861 and 1878.The Bee-Hive was established in 1861 by George Potter, with professional journalist George Troup as editor and Robert Hartwell as the main contributor...

, who argued that the journal should give its support unreservedly to all strike action undertaken by trade unions throughout the country. Applegarth accused him of being a "manufacturer of strikes" and of personal dishonesty and maladministration following an investigation into the Bee-Hive in 1865. As a result George Potter

George Potter

George Potter was a prominent British trade unionist.-Biography:George Potter was born in Kenilworth, where his father worked as a carpenter. He was educated for a short time at a local dame school, but left to work at a young age to supplement his father's income of three shillings a day...

 was forced to leave the LTC.

Under Applegarth's leadership, the ASCJ's membership increased from 1000 in 1862 to over 10,000 in 1870 , and accumulated funds of over £17,000. During the Royal Commission on Trade Unions (1867), Applegarth vigorously advocated the benefits of New Model Unionism to the committee, answering a total of 633 questions, and was generally regarded as the most impressive pro-trade union witness. Applegarth campaigned for the pro-trade unionist minority report of the commission to be accepted by Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...

's Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 government, leading to the Trade Union Act

Trade Union Act 1871

Trade Union Act 1871 was a Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legalised trade unions for the first time in the United Kingdom.-Background:...

 of 1871. In May of the same year he was offered a position on the Royal Commission on Contagious Diseases, which he took despite the protests of the ASCJ, leading him to resign from his position as general secretary. At around this time he joined the Working Men's Committee for Promoting the Separation of Church and State along with Potter and George Howell.

After his work for the Royal Commission, Applegarth became a commercial traveller for a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 firm selling Henry Fleuss's

Henry Fleuss

Henry Albert Fleuss was a pioneering diving engineer, and Master Diver for Siebe, Gorman & Co. of London.Fleuss was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1851....

 underwater breathing apparatus. He took out the English patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 for the Yablochkov candle

Yablochkov candle

A Yablochkov candle is a type of electric carbon arc lamp, invented in 1876 by Pavel Yablochkov.-Design:A Yablochkov candle consists of a sandwich of two long carbon blocks, approximately 6 by 12 millimetres in cross-section, separated by a block of inert material such as plaster of paris or kaolin...

 and made a fairly successful business out of it based in Epsom

Epsom

Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...

. When his old friend George Howell lost his seat in Parliament in 1895 and fell ill, Applegarth and the TUC raised a £1650 testimonial to buy him an annuity. In 1898 he became a poultry farmer in Bexley

Bexley

Bexley is an South East London]] in the London Borough of Bexley, London, England. It is located on the banks of the River Cray south of the Roman Road, Watling Street...

, where he introduced a new breed of French hen.

Applegarth spent his retirement in Brighton, where he was offered the title of Companion of Honour

Order of the Companions of Honour

The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....

 by Lloyd George

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...

in 1917. He turned the offer down, saying he preferred to remain "plain Robert Applegarth". When he died in 1924 he was buried with no religious ceremony, according to his instructions.