Noah Ablett

Ablett was born in 1883 in Porth, Rhondda to John and Jane Ablett;Lloyd (1958), pg 1113. he was the tenth child of eleven. Originally intending to join the ministry, Ablett was turned to the plight of the poor pay and working conditions of the Rhondda coal miners. A keen learner, he won a scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford in 1907 and while there was part of the college strike and subsequent movement that saw the creation of the Marxist educational group, the Plebs' League. On returning to the valleys he set up Marxist educational classes and was part of minimum wage agitation.

In 1911, Ablett became a checkweighman at Mardy Colliery in Maerdy and later that year was one of the founders of the Unofficial Reform Committee. The following year he was the main author of 'The Miners' Next Step', a pamphlet demanding a minimum wage for the miners and for the miners to take control of the mines. By 1919 Ablett was an executive of the South Wales Miners' Federation and was chairman of the board of governors of the Central Labour College.{{cite web|url=http://papuraunewyddcymru.llgc.org.uk/en/page/view/4000188/ART41/Noah%20Ablett|title=Mr Ablett and Parliament|date=1 November 1919|publisher=Merthyr Pioneer|access-date=29 June 2014}} In 1919 Ablett was approached by the Labour Party to contest the Pembrokeshire constituency ahead of the 1922 general election. Ablett turned down the invitation, citing the demands of his other responsibilities. 1919 also saw the release of Ablett's sole book Easy outline of economics, published through the Plebs' League. Between 1921 and 1926 he was an executive member of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain.[http://www.agor.org.uk/cwm/themes/people/noah_ablett.asp Coalfield Web Materials] Noah Ablett

In later life Ablett struggled with alcoholism. He died of cancer in 1935, at home in Merthyr Tydfil.{{cite ODNB|id=47319|first=Hywel|last=Francis|title=Ablett, Noah (1883–1935)}}

Aneurin Bevan, Labour politician and founder of the National Health Service, described Ablett as "a leader of great intellectual power and immense influence."{{cite web | url=https://journals.library.wales/view/1326508/1327777/20#?xywh=-912%2C720%2C4678%2C3002 | title=Welsh Journals - Llafur the journal of the Society for the Study of Welsh Labour History., Vol, 4 no. 3, 1986 }}

Ablett played the major role in the political education of Arthur Horner, who later served as Secretary General of the National Union of Mineworkers.{{cite journal | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/most-revolutionary-banner-in-british-trade-union-history-political-identities-and-the-birth-life-purgatory-and-rebirth-of-the-red-follonsby-miners-banner/08A812EE3C0A6ADCAC85BBE9FA365FD2 | doi=10.1017/S0147547921000107 | title=The "most revolutionary" banner in British trade union history? Political identities and the birth, life, purgatory, and rebirth of the "red" Follonsby miners' banner | date=2021 | last1=Mates | first1=Lewis | journal=International Labor and Working-Class History | volume=100 | pages=109–135 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=John Edward |author2=Jenkins, R.T. |title=Dictionary of Welsh Biography Down to 1940 |title-link=Dictionary of Welsh Biography Down to 1940 |year=1958 |publisher=William Lewis|location=Cardiff }}

{{s-start}}

{{s-npo|union}}

{{succession box|title=Checkweighman at Mardy Colliery|before=Thomas Isaac Mardy Jones|after=Ted Williams|years=1910–1917}}

{{succession box|title=Agent for the Merthyr District of the South Wales Miners' Federation|years=1915–1933|before=John Williams|after=Position abolished}}

{{succession box|title=Agent for the Merthyr, Aberdare and Dowlais District of the South Wales Miners' Federation|years=1934–1935|with=Owen Powell|before=New position|after=Emlyn Thomas}}

{{s-end}}

{{Portal|Organized labour}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ablett, Noah}}

Category:1883 births

Category:1935 deaths

Category:Alumni of Ruskin College

Category:Welsh trade unionists

Category:People from Porth

Category:Welsh syndicalists

Category:Plebs' League members