William Johnson MBE (c. 1849 – 20 July 1919)[1] was an English coal miner, trade unionist and Liberal-Labour (Lib-Lab) politician from Warwickshire.

[3] He was educated at Collycroft School, and began work young, in both factories and collieries.

[2] After serving on several local bodies he was elected to Warwickshire County Council for Bedworth, becoming an alderman by 1916,[3] by which times he was also chairman of Bedworth Parish Council, treasurer of the Midland Miners Federation, a Free and Accepted Mason of the Grand Lodge of England, a Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Warwickshire, and a governor of the Nicholas Chamberlain School Foundation.

[3] He first stood for election to Parliament at the 1892 general election, when he unsuccessfully contested the Tamworth division of Warwickshire as a Lib-Lab candidate, where he lost by a large margin of 31% of the votes to the Conservative Party MP Philip Muntz.

This was because of a decision by the Miners Federation of Great Britain, to affiliate to the Labour party.