John Ernest Stopford Challener (11 August 1875 – 12 March 1906) was a British trade union leader.
Born in Islington, Challener's parents died when he was young, and he was brought up by a relative who worked for the Great Northern Railway.
[1] He moved with his relative to Doncaster, and there began working for the railway company as a clerk.
[1] Challener devoted much of his time to the union, attending each of its conferences, and in May 1899 taking the lead on a national campaign to increase clerks' salaries.
The union's general secretary, John Hereford, resigned late in 1898 due to poor health, and Challener was the only candidate to replace him, being declared elected at the union's conference in June 1899.