Applegarth, Robert

Applegarth, Robert, 1834–1924, English trade union leader, a carpenter by trade. A charter member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, he became in 1862 its general secretary. Under his leadership the society, with other unions, pressed the fight for legalization of unions and for protection of their funds. The fight was successfully concluded in 1871.

See biography by A. W. Humphrey (1913); J. Bowditch and C. Ramsland, Voices of the Industrial Revolution (1961).

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