Home > Will Crooks

Born in Shirbutt Street, Poplar, Crooks was the third son of a ship's stoker, George Crooks, who lost his arm in an accident when Crooks was three years old. His mother (Charlotte, a seamstress) then became the main breadwinner, but money was scarce and five of the children were temporarily forced to enter Poplar workhouse in 1861 – an experience that had a profound influence on Crooks' views on poverty.

Educated at a local Poor law school, Crooks worked initially as a grocer's errand boy, then a blacksmith's labourer and then as an apprentice cooper. A keen reader, Crooks learned about reformers such as Richard Cobden and John Bright, and was asked by his fellow workers to speak out about their working conditions. Consequently, he was sacked for being a political agitator (he remained a member of the Coopers Union from 1867 until his death in 1921).

After a short spell working in Liverpool, Crooks returned to London and found work in the docks. He also began to give political lectures, and his speaking abilities proved helpful in raising funds for 10,000 striking dockers in the 1889 London dock strike.

Earlier that year, Crooks, a candidate for the Progressive Party, successfully stood for election to the London County Council, and joined Sidney Webb and other labour movement leaders in the LCC. He also became the first working-class member, and later chairman, of the Poplar Board of Guardians. With support from friend and fellow member George Lansbury, Crooks set about reforming the local workhouse, creating a model for other Poor Law authorities.

A prominent local politician, he helped bring about many local improvements. On 3 August 1895Events January events January 5 Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. February events February 14 First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnes, Crooks formally opened Island Gardens, a park at the south end of the Isle of DogsIsle of Dogs is also a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson. The Isle of Dogs is a peninsula into the River Thames. It is to be found in the East End of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is also considered part of Docklands, an area design, opposite Greenwich HospitalThe Greenwich Hospital was founded in 1694 as the Royal Naval Hospital for Seamen and occupied its prime riverside site on the south bank of the river Thames in Greenwich, London for over 170 years, closing in 1869. It was subsequently occupied by the Roy. He also campaigned for the first Blackwall TunnelThe Blackwall Tunnel is a road tunnel underneath the River Thames in London, linking the London Borough of Greenwich with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is actually two tunnels, one built at the end of the 19th century, the other completed some 7 (1896), and later – as Chairman of the LCC Bridges Committee (1898), he helped provide the GreenwichThe Greenwich foot tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel crossing beneath the River Thames in east London, linking the London Borough of Greenwich to the south with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to the north. It was designed by civil engineer Sir Alexander and Woolwich foot tunnelThe Woolwich foot tunnel is a tunnel crossing under the River Thames in east London from Woolwich in the London Borough of Greenwich to North Woolwich in the London Borough of Newham. The tunnel offers pedestrians an alternative way to cross the river whes (both completed in 1902Events January-April January 28 The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie. France, Loisy's L'evangile et l'Eglise which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis February 11 Police beat up universal suffrage).

In 1901Events January 1 World celebrates what is regarded as the start of the new century. Zero-ists' argument that new century should be celebrated in 1900 rejected worldwide). January 1 The six colonies that make up Australia are federated as under an act of t Crooks became the first Labour mayor of Poplar, and – two years later – was elected to Parliament as MP for Woolwich (after a pact between the Labour Representation Committee and the Liberal Party wrested the seat away from the Conservative Party). At the time, he was only the fourth Labour MP (preceded by James Keir Hardie, Richard Bell and David Shackleton ; Arthur Henderson followed later in 1903).

As an MP, he retained his working-class roots and contacts, campaigned hard for workers' pensions, supported reforms to limit the powers of the House of Lords, and supported Balfour’s Unemployment Bill in 1905. Re-elected in 1906, he supported the reforming Liberal governments of Campbell-Bannerman (1906-1908) and Asquith (1908-1910).

Crooks briefly lost his seat in Parliament during 1910 but returned in December 1910, and remained an MP until ill-health forced his retirement in February 1921. He died in the London Hospital, Whitechapel four months later, and was buried in Tower Hamlets Cemetery.

In 1930, one of the Woolwich Ferry paddle-steamers was named in his memory (taken out of service in 1963). A council housing estate in his native Poplar still bears his name, as does a road in Eltham, just south of Woolwich.