Abraham Greenwood (1824 – 3 May 1911) was a prolific English co-operator who from 1863 to 1870 served as the first President of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.[1]
Abraham Greenwood | |
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| Born | 1824 Rochdale, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 3 May 1911 (aged 86–87) Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, England |
| Occupations |
|
| Movement | |
| Spouse |
Betty Greenwood (died 1886) |
| Children | Melinda Greenwood |
Biography
editGreenwood was born in 1824 in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of a blanket manufacturer, David Greenwood and his wife Martha. Greenwood trained as a weaver, and then apprenticed as a wool sorter and remained in the wool sorting trade for 26 years. At 18 Greenwood became secretary of the local Chartist Association and was a librarian for the Rochdale People's Institute.[1][2]
In 1846 he joined the recently formed Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, serving on the management committee and later becoming president.[1] He was also active in the co-op's educational department and gave classes.[3][4] He was a founding member and the first chair of the Rochdale Corn Mill Society, later playing a key role in making the mill profitable following mismanagement.[1][3][5]
Greenwood strongly advocated for a federal wholesale society to supply retail co-operatives and helped lobby for changes to the Industrial and Provident Societies Partnership Act to permit the establishment of such a society. Upon its founding in 1863 Greenwood was elected president of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Industrial Provident Society, later shortened to the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). From 1874 to 1878 he was the CWS's cashier, and later served as the society's bank manager.[1]
Alongside his roles in the CWS he was a founder and director of the Co-operative Insurance Company, spent 25 years as chairman of the Co-operative Newspaper Society, and served on the central board of the Co-operative Union. In 1892 he was awarded the honour of serving as President of Co-operative Congress.[1]
In 1886 his wife, Betty, died. His daughter, Melinda, was an active early member of the Co-operative Women's Guild, serving as the Guild's vice-president.[6][7] Greenwood died on the 3 May 1911 at home in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, and was buried in Rochdale Cemetery.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Bing, H. F.; Saville, John (1972). "GREENWOOD, Graham (1824–1911)". In Bellamy, Joyce M.; Saville, John (eds.). Dictionary of Labour Biography. Vol. 1. Internet Archive. London: Macmillan. pp. 141–142. ISBN 978-0-333-42757-6.
- ^ Cole, G. D. H. (1944). A Century of Co-operation. Internet Archive. George Allen & Unwin. p. 84.
- ^ a b Birchall, Johnston (1994). Co-op: The People's Business. Manchester University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7190-3861-7. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
- ^ Redfern, Percy (1913). The Story of the C.W.S.: The Jubilee History of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited, 1863-1913. Internet Archive. Manchester: C.W.S. p. 380.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Holyoake, George Jacob (1900). The History of the Rochdale Pioneers, 1844–1892. Internet Archive. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. pp. 29–30, 118–119.
- ^ Blaszak, Barbara J. (2000). The Matriarchs of England's Cooperative Movement: A Study in Gender Politics and Female Leadership, 1883–1921. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0-313-30995-7. OCLC 42061132. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
- ^ Gurney, Peter, ed. (2020), ""Vice President's Address", Miss Greenwood on Women's Position, Report of the 17th Annual Congress of Delegates from Co-operative Societies…1885 (Manchester: Co-op Union, 1885), 71–72", Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Socialism, vol. 2, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 253–254, doi:10.4324/9780429452352-36, ISBN 978-1-138-49019-2, S2CID 228952153, archived from the original on 8 July 2022, retrieved 18 July 2022