John Swan (British politician)

John Edmund Swan (1877 – 9 February 1956){{cite web

| url = http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Bcommons1.htm

| title = House of Commons constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)

| work = Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages

| accessdate = 2009-04-19

| url-status = usurped

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131117190415/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Bcommons1.htm

| archive-date = 17 November 2013

}} was a Labour Party politician in England.

Swan was born in Dipton, County Durham. He became a coal miner, and was later elected as checkweighman, also becoming active in the Durham Miners' Association (DMA).{{cite book |last1=Stenton |first1=Michael |last2=Lees |first2=Stephen |title=Who's Who of British Members of Parliament |volume=III |date=1979 |publisher=Harvester Press |location=Brighton |isbn=0855273259 |page=348}}

He was elected at the 1918 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnard Castle in County Durham, but lost his seat at the 1922 election to the Conservative Party candidate, John Edwin Rogerson.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|authorlink= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949

|origyear=1969

|edition=3rd

|year=1983

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-06-X

|page=338

}}

Out of Parliament, Swan devoted his time to the DMA, and he was elected as its general secretary in 1935, serving until 1945. He also remained active in the Labour Party, serving on its National Executive Committee from 1932 until 1941, and on both the Annfield Plain Urban District Council, and the Lanchester Board of Guardians.

In his spare time, Swan wrote the novels The Mad Miner and People of the Night, and the play, On the Minimum.