John Gregory (14 July 1831[1] – 20 May 1922)[2] was a shoemaker, poet, peace activist and trade unionist,[3] sometimes referred to as 'the poet-shoemaker of Bristol' or the 'poet cobbler'.

[1] Following seven years as an apprentice, Gregory migrated to Bristol, returning to Devon in 1852, and subsequently finding work in Tenby, Aberavon, and Swansea.

[1]  In 1856, in Bristol where Gregory had travelled to help a sick friend, he met his future wife, Ann Arman,[4][7] who he married after courtship of five weeks.

Writing after his death, Justice described Gregory as becoming actively involved with the working class movement immediately upon moving to Bristol in 1860, and remaining so for the rest of his life.

In his earlier years he was associated with the Radical Reform movement, but... he early threw in his lot with the Bristol Socialist Society.

[4] According to historian Gerrard Sables, Gregory was "a strong supporter of the North in the American Civil War, of national independence movements in Poland and Ireland, and a prominent local campaigner against imperialism and the death penalty.

Wright wrote of Gregory that he had:cultivated the Muse under great difficulties, and it is difficult to say what he might have done had his lot been less hampered with the consideration of how to make both ends meet.

"[8] The Western Daily Press described Gregory as "one of the Grand Old Men of Bristol, for he devoted the greater part of his life to the betterment of the people and to interpreting, by his writings, the wonders of Nature".