Box was one of seventeen children, but was orphaned at the age of eight and began working as an agricultural labourer.
He spent periods working as a miner in South Wales, and on the railways, but by the early 1900s was again an agricultural labourer, based in Ledbury, in Herefordshire.
[1] Early in 1912, Box decided to form the Herefordshire Agricultural Workers' Union.
He received supportive coverage from the Hereford Times, and survived being shot at while cycling home from a union meeting.
At the 1918 United Kingdom general election, he became the first Labour candidate in Hereford, taking 24.2% of the vote.