People/miner, labour leader

Albert 'Ginger' Goodwin

Albert 'Ginger' Goodwin (1887–1918), miner, labour leader, from United Kingdom. Linked to coal.

The lucky break

Started work in a Yorkshire colliery at 15 and rose to union leadership in British Columbia.1

The downfall

Shot dead on 27 July 1918 near Cumberland, B.C. by a Dominion Police constable searching for men evading military service.1

Legacy

His funeral drew a mile-long procession and his death prompted British Columbia's first general strike. The circumstances of his death are still disputed.1

Story cards

Where next

People

An example ofKeir HardieGoodwin entered a Yorkshire pit at 15. Hardie started as a trapper in a Lanarkshire mine at ten.2An example ofJ. B. McLachlanTwo union leaders from British pits who led miners in Canada.1

Sources

  1. GOODWIN, ALBERT (Ginger) Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  2. Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement: Hardie, James Keir Wikisource (public domain source text)

Pictures on this page: Keir Hardie by George Grantham Bain.jpg, George Grantham Bain (American photographer and journalist (1865–1944)) / Adam Cuerden (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Haul trucks by Lechhabmed, CC BY-SA 4.0.