George Shipton

Shipton worked as a builder and became involved in trade unionism by joining the Land and Labour League, where he became a strong supporter of George Odger.

[2] In 1878, Shipton travelled to Paris, leading the English delegation at an early international labour conference.

[3] The London Trades Council had broken links with The Bee-Hive, their previous journal, in 1865, and it had ceased publication in 1878.

Although the universal franchise was some years off, he claimed that "when the people were unenfranchised, were without votes, the only power left to them was the demonstration of numbers.

[6] He was defeated for the Secretaryship of the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC,[7] but remained the Secretary of the London Trades Council until 1896.