Story
Benjamin’s parents were Betty Firth (1804-1889), who was a charwoman, 10 years older than her husband Thomas Pickard (1814-1884), who was a collier. Betty’s father, Matthew Firth (1770-1850) was the Kippax Sexton, however she had an illegitimate daughter, Mary, 8 years before she married. Benjamin’s parents married 21st September 1840, and Benjamin was their second child, born 28th February 1842. As both his parents were illiterate, Benjamin taught himself to read and write, encouraged to do so by his parents. Benjamin started working at the age of 12, at Billywood Colliery, owned by Locke and Company. This was a small pit, employing around 50 underground miners. Benjamin started as a hurrier (pushing coal tubs), then a trapper (circulating air). Benjamin kept records of the local mining lodge, entering into Union life. At 16 he was lodge secretary. Benjamin had a second cousin, also called Benjamin Pickard, who worked at Billywood Colliery as well, and was just one year older. This Benjamin was killed at Billywood Colliery on 2nd February 1858, aged 17. The 26th special rule of the colliery required miners to set “a short prop or ‘sprag’ every two yards, to prevent the undermined coal from falling unexpectedly”, and the miner Benjamin was working for, Peter Bickerdike, “forgot to comply with this easy and simple injunction; suddenly a block of unsupported coal dropped on the poor lad, and crushed him to death.” Peter Bickerdike himself died later the same year.
Benjamin was born a member of the Church of England, but joined the Methodists, becoming a teacher, trustee, Sunday School Teacher, and a preacher on the circuit between 1873 and 1876. He met a fellow Methodist from Kippax, Elizabeth Hannah Fleeman, who was a year younger, and the daughter of a Kippax grocer, John Fleeman. John didn’t approve the match, but never one to take no for an answer, Benjamin climbed up to the top of their outhouse, and carried Elizabeth off through an upstairs window, eloped and married her in 1864. The couple had their first child together on 13th May 1865, and named him John Fleeman Pickard, which was likely a conciliatory peace offering to Benjamin’s father-in-law. They worshiped together at the same Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Kippax, so it evidently worked.
Aged 25, Benjamin was the 25th of 26 signatories to be a member of the new Kippax Co-operative Society. He became Checkweighman at Kippax around 1871, elected by the miners of the Kippax Lodge. He was elected assistant Secretary of the Yorkshire Miners Union, and then secretary in 1876, succeeding John Dixon who passed away on 8th April 1876. The 20-year period leading to the Peckfield Colliery Disaster were extremely difficult for miners. Their wages in 1880 were below the rates paid in 1870, and Union membership fell. However in 1881, Benjamin managed to amalgamate the South and West Yorkshire unions to create a more powerful voice. Perhaps surprisingly, Benjamin was not in favour of taking colliery ownership away from rich landowner families in order to nationalise them, stating “I don’t think that if the mines were nationalised the miners would be a penny better off than they are today. The whole crux of the question affecting the miners is not as to whom the mines belong but as to how the coal should be sold which is produced in the mines and brought to the surface for public use.” In fact, Benjamin had attempted to launch a Co-operative Colliery, which failed, costing him and the Miners’ Association a sizeable amount of money. He favoured restricting the output of coal to increase the price of coal, and limiting working hours to eight.
In 1877 Benjamin became assistant secretary of the Miners’ National Union and was a leading player in the foundation of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, of which he was elected the first president. Benjamin and Elizabeth moved to Wakefield, where Benjamin joined the Wakefield School Board in 1883. He became an Alderman in 1889, and first entered the House of Commons as the MP for Normanton in 1885, aged 43 (drawn below), and he was still getting elected in 1897. Benjamin was referred to as “the King of the Miners”, and was described as a “keen and tenacious fighter, but he combines generalship with pugnacity, and by persistent and skilful organisation he has gained great power.”
On 26th November 1889 Benjamin formed the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, and Benjamin also helped establish the International Federation of Mineworkers in 1890, organising several international congresses of miners from Britain, Germany, Austria, France and Belgium which were held in Paris, Switzerland, Brussels, Berlin, and London.
In September 1893, aged 51, Benjamin led the miners in the biggest industrial dispute the country had hitherto seen. The summer of 1893 saw a significant fall in the price of coal and a demand by the pit owners, via the Coalowners’ Federation who published a manifesto, that coal miners had to accept a 25 percent cut in their wages. Benjamin’s Miners’ Federation responded that Miners deserved and demanded a “living wage”, and reputed, paragraph by paragraph, every one of the coal owners’ justifications, concluding that they had broken an agreement under which such matters in dispute should be considered before taking action. The result was an industrial dispute described as a ‘lock-out’ or a ‘strike’. The consequences were enormous. On 7th September 1893, a crowd assembled at a pit head in Featherstone trying to stop coal being transported out. Troops were sent to help the colliery manager, and following the reading of the Riot Act by a local magistrate and the failure of the crowd to disperse, the troops were ordered to open fire. Sixteen people were struck by bullets of whom two died from their injuries. On 16th September 1893 ‘The Illustrated London News’ published the image below left with the caption: “The Colliery Strikes – Distress in a Colliery Village: Distributing Soup.” On 23rd September 1893, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that there were increasing examples of coal mining families in extreme poverty (below right):
To avoid at the same scenario, it was reported that the 360 miners “employed by the Micklefield coal and lime company were endeavouring to withdraw from the sick, accident, and widows and orphans fund connected with the concern a portion of the fund which stands to the credit of the fund. This fund was started eight or nine years ago with the object of securing the widows and fatherless children of the miners against necessity, and providing a living for the ailing colliers and their families. Each man contributes 3½d a week and each youth 2d per week to the fund, which is managed by the president and vice president, Mr. W.D. Cliffe, a proprietor, and Mr. Houfton, the company’s manager, and by a committee chosen by and from the Miners. It is said that this provident fund now amounts to between £800 and £900, which is likely to be sufficient to meet all ordinary calls upon it for some time to come. A few days ago the colliers applied to the manager for leave to withdraw a few hundred pounds of this money, to help them to tide over their present difficulties. The men seem to think that the balance of £500 pounds would be quite enough to “keep in hand,” and that the remaining few hundreds would be very acceptable to them just now. Mr. Houfton has promised to lay the matter before the company, and to communicate the result as early as possible. Of course of the president and his deputy can scarcely be expected to jump at this suggestion, as there is no knowing what demands may be made on the fund by those for whose use it was intended. In the meantime the most perfect good feeling between the men and the company and its manager prevails, and has prevailed ever since the strike started. The miners are behaving most excellently, and their employers are treating them with the utmost consideration.”
On 27th September 1893, Peckfield Colliery miner, Amos Whitaker protested to the same paper that they were treated with hostility whilst promoting their case in Selby. The 1893 strike was finally settled by the first ever government intervention in an industrial dispute, and miners returned to work in November 1893 on their existing wage, guaranteed until February, 1894. A Conciliation Board was created, made up of an equal number of miners and mine-owners, chaired by a civil servant, for which the miners awarded Benjamin £750. In July 1894 the miners agreed to a 10% reduction in their wages.
On the day of the Peckfield colliery disaster, Benjamin was in London speaking to colliery owners, including W.D. Cliff, assisted by his deputy William Parrott, when they were informed about the disaster in Micklefield. The meeting minuted an action to send a telegram of sympathy, seconded by Benjamin Pickard. Mr. Cliff and Mr. Parrott returned North, but Benjamin remained in London, despite his first cousin, Fielding Pickard, narrowly escaping death in the disaster, and Fielding’s nephew, Louis, being killed. He wasn’t universally appreciated. Beatrice Webb, who met him at a conference in 1896, described him in these terms: “He is a disagreeable person – suspicious, irascible, autocratic – his best characteristic being a pig-headed persistency in sticking to certain principles such as wages ruling prices and a legal day…. It is almost impossible to understand why Pickard is allowed to rule with such a high hand, unless it is because he is a bully, holds himself aloof, and knows his own mind. To look at, he is an ugly, surly brute with small suspicious eyes, an unwieldy corporation, red face and unpleasant manner – a cross between a bull-dog and a pig. Pickard rules because he is the only really strong personality, the only man with a sufficiently big ambition.”
In 1897, Benjamin’s involvement with the Peace Society led to his inclusion in a peace deputation to the president of the United States, Grover Cleveland. He is pictured below as an M.P. outside the House of Commons in July 1897.
Benjamin featured on 23rd October 1900 at the Miners’ Federation conference, which was reported below:
Benjamin’s wife died in 1901, and his health started to decline. He died of heart failure at 2 St. Stephen’s Chambers, Westminster on 3rd February 1904, surrounded by his children, and newspapers carried extensive obituaries. Benjamin’s estate was worth £2,019, which would be around £172k today. During his presidency the total union membership from affiliated district unions grew from around 38,000 in 1888 to 350,000 in 1900. He was buried in Barnsley and was succeeded as President by William Parrott.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 