THE LATE GEORGE ODGER, A REPRESENTATIVE WORKING MAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 116, 18 May 1877, Page 4

THE LATE GEORGE ODGER, A REPRESENTATIVE WORKING MAN.

Mr George Odger died at bis house in High-street, Bloorasbury, on the 4th of March, after a lingering and painful illness. He was born in 1820, in a vill.aga between Plymouth and Tavistock. His education was limited to the rustic school of bis native place, and consisted of the simplest rudiments of elementary knowledge. He began work at an early age, and afterwards became apprenticed to a shoemaker. He commenced an early course of study and self-culture, and made himself Boon known in his native county as an advanced . thinker, public reader, and reciter of dramatic, poetic, and general literature. At that time it was usual for workmen of his class on completing their apprenticeship to travel extensively through England to study the different kinds of work. Mr Odger, having visited numerous places, finally settled down in London, and became a member of the Society of Oordwaiuere. When shoemakers opposed the in roduction of machinery about the years 1848-51, he showed the folly of such Opposition, and contributed considerably to the modfication of the workmen's views. In 1859 be became more conspicuous as a public and political man in connection with 'he lock-out in the building trades, at the delegate meetings of which he represented his own society, and became well known to and associated with the prominent working men of London. About 1863 he was appointed secretary to the London Trades Council, which had been formel two years previously, and in connection with which he visited many towns in England as the representative of that association during their agitation with regard to wages and hours of work But it was as a member of the Reform League that he became so widely known. In 1865 when a commission was appointed to inquire into the working of the Master and Servant's Act, Mr Odger gave assistance to the Select Committee appointed for the purpose of amending the law with regard to contracts of hiring and of service, and was examined at great length before "that committee. Iq 1868 he stood as a candidate for the newly constituted borough of Chelsea, but ou agreeing to arbitration as to which of the Liberal candidates would be most likely to carry the * suffrages of the electors, he on a decision consented to withdraw. In 1869 be stood for the Borough of Stafford, where it was decided to take a preliminary ballot of the Liberal voters: the result was that he, among others, had to retire. In 1870 he contested the Borough of Southwark, and polled 4382 votes. He was conspicuous during the Civil War in America by his constant and consistent advocacy of the North against what he termed " the siaveholding South."