PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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James John Hamlyn Moses was born at Dartmouth on August 14th 1873. After education at the local Board School, he started part-time work at the age of 9 as a newspaper boy. At the age of 13 he became a full-time errand boy. In 1887, at the age of 14, he became an apprentice shipwright at the Royal Dockyard, Devonport. In 1894 he joined the Associated Shipwrights' Society, which was later known as the Ship Constructors and Shipwrights' Association. Following election to the Executive Committee, he later became chairman of the Association. He also held the position of vice-chairman of the Yard Committee and chairman of the employees' side. Mr Moses was elected to Devonport Borough Council in 1911 and served right through the amalgamation of the Three Towns, which he fervently supported, becoming a Justice of the Peace in 1917 and an Alderman in 1921. Prior to that, in 1918, he had decided to break with the Liberal Party and transferred his allegiance to the new Labour Party. Under his leadership this Party grew in strength in the Town and in 1926 he was elected as Plymouth's first Labour Mayor. When his term of office was completed in 1927, he was elevated to the Devon County Bench of justices. "Jimmy" Moses retired from the Dockyard in May 1929, following which he was elected as Member of Parliament for the Drake Division. This brought about a petition against his election but after an eight day hearing, the petition was dismissed with costs. In 1937 he was adopted as the prospective candidate for the Mining Division in Cornwall but he never fought the election. He was a deeply religious person and was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church. Mr James John Hamlyn Moses retired from the Council in November 1945, following many years of illness (to which the stress of the Second World War no doubt contributed), and died on the evening of Tuesday May 28th 1946 at his home, 26 Onslow Road. He was 72 years of age.
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