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James Wignall

British Labour Party politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ16031134 ↗
Source-derived summary

James Wignall (21 July 1856 – 10 June 1925) was a British Labour Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons for seven years from 1918 to 1925.

In 1893 Wignall was appointed Secretary of the Swansea branches of the Dockers' Union and between 1905 and 1908 he was President of the union.

Wignall was first elected at the 1918 general election as the member of parliament (MP) for the Forest of Dean division of Gloucestershire, defeating the sitting Liberal Party MP Sir Henry Webb, Bt. He was re-elected three times, in 1922, 1923 and 1924, and held the seat until his death in June 1925, aged 68. At the resulting by-election on 14 July, the seat was retained for Labour by Albert Arthur Purcell.

Wignall was the father of Trevor Wignall the sportswriter and author.

On 10 June 1925, Wignall collapsed in the corridors of the House of Commons and was taken to hospital, where he died the same day aged 68.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “James Wignall” as british Labour Party politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Wignall and British.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1856, 1925, 1918, 1893—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1856-07-21. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with James, Wignall and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “James Wignall”, the useful work is to connect “british Labour Party politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16031134. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1925, 1918 and 1893.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “James Wignall”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow James Wignall primary sources, James Wignall archive and James research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “James Wignall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.