Ted was born in Sheffield, the eldest son of Edward Lismer, a draper and his wife Harriett.
[2][1] In 1917, the Sheffield committee organised a major strike, in protest at the conscription of workers who had volunteered for munitions work in the factories.
The following year, he was elected as the organising secretary of the new British Bureau of the Red International of Labour Unions, frequently working from Manchester.
He was removed from this post in 1922, but instead became the organising secretary of the party's Sheffield district, and was placed on the Control Commission of the CPGB.
In 1924, he moved to Manchester, but retained links with Sheffield, and was arrested there during the 1926 UK general strike.