{{Short description|English Labour Party politician and trade union official}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}} {{Use British English|date=April 2017}} thumb|right|Scurr in 1914 '''John Scurr''' (born '''John Rennie'''; 6 April 1876 – 10 July 1932) was an English Labour Party politician and trade union official who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mile End from 1923 to 1931.
Scurr was born in Brisbane, Australia, the son of Louis James Rennie, an immigrant from London, but was adopted by his uncle, Captain John Scurr, and brought to London at six months old. He spent his life in Poplar, from which his family came, a lifelong supporter of left-wing and Labour causes. In 1900, he married an Irish woman named Julia Sullivan, who became a prominent politician and campaigner for women's rights,<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-77194 | isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/77194 | title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | year=2004 }}</ref> who led a deputation (on behalf of Sylvia Pankhurst) to meet Prime Minister Asquith, in 1914 and pleaded for suffrage for women supported by the poor working-class men and women of East London.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|first=Diane|last=Atkinson| author-link = Diane Atkinson |publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=503|oclc=1016848621}}</ref> They had two sons and a daughter born within four years. She died in 1927.
He was an accountant<ref name=":0" /> and active member of Poplar Trades Council (and later served as its president) and was elected as an alderman to Poplar Borough Council in 1919. He served as mayor in 1922–1923, vice-chairman (1920–1922) and chairman (1922–1923) of the Metropolitan Boroughs Standing Joint Committee, and an alderman of London County Council from 1925 to 1929. In 1921, he was imprisoned, along with 29 other Poplar councillors, as a protest against unequal rates.
In 1913, when Scurr was Chairman of the London District Committee of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union, he was a last minute socialist candidate at the Chesterfield by-election. {{Election box begin | |title=1913 Chesterfield by-election Electorate 16,995}} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Liberal Party (UK) |candidate = Barnet Kenyon |votes = 7,725 |percentage =55.8 |change = }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Unionist Party (UK) |candidate = Edward Christie |votes = 5,539 |percentage =40.0 |change = }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Independent Labour |candidate = John Scurr |votes = 583 |percentage =4.2 |change = }} {{Election box turnout| |votes = |percentage = 81.5 |change = }} {{Election box majority| |votes = 2,186 |percentage = 15.8 |change = }} {{Election box gain with party link| |winner = Liberal Party (UK) |loser = Labour Party (UK) |swing = }} {{Election box end}}
He contested the 1914 Ipswich by-election, where he finished in third place; as the Conservatives gained the seat from the Liberals.
At the 1918 general election, he unsuccessfully contested the Liberal seat of Buckingham, finishing third in the contest. He was defeated again at the 1922 general election in the Mile End constituency in the East End.
Scurr won the Mile End seat at the 1923 general election, unseating the Conservative MP Sir Walter Preston. He was re-elected in 1924 and 1929, but lost his seat when the Labour Party split at the 1931 general election.
== References == {{Reflist}} * {{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 |orig-year=1969 |edition= 3rd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-06-X}} *{{Rayment-hc|date=March 2012}} *Obituary, ''The Times'', 11 July 1932 *''Who Was Who''
== External links == *{{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-scurr | John Scurr }}
{{S-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Mile End | years = 1923–1931 | before = Sir Walter Preston | after = William O'Donovan }} {{s-civic}} {{succession box|title=Mayor of Poplar|years=1922–1923|before=Charlie Sumner|after=Charles Key}} {{s-ppo}} {{succession box|title=London Division representative on the Independent Labour Party National Administrative Council|years=1926–1927|before=Ernest E. Hunter|after=Ernest E. Hunter}} {{succession box|title=London Division representative on the Independent Labour Party National Administrative Council|years=1928–1929|before=Ernest E. Hunter|after=J. Allen Skinner}} {{S-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scurr, John}} Category:1876 births Category:1932 deaths Category:Politicians from Brisbane Category:People from Poplar, London Category:Australian emigrants to England Category:Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:English socialists Category:Trade unionists from London Category:UK MPs 1923–1924 Category:UK MPs 1924–1929 Category:UK MPs 1929–1931 Category:Members of Poplar Metropolitan Borough Council Category:Members of London County Council Category:Mayors of places in Greater London Category:Emigrants from colonial Australia to the United Kingdom