Abraham Greenwood

Abraham Greenwood (1824 – 3 May 1911) was a prolific English co-operator who from 1863–1870 served as the first President of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.^[1]

Abraham Greenwood
Born	1824 Rochdale, Lancashire, England
Died	3 May 1911(1911-05-03) (aged 86–87) Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, England
Occupations	Wool sorter Cashier Bank manager
Movement	Co-operative Chartist
Spouse	Betty Greenwood ​ (died 1886)​
Children	Melinda Greenwood

Biography

Greenwood was born in 1824 in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of a blanket manufacturer, David Greenwood and his wife Martha. Greenwood trained as a weaver, and then apprenticed as a wool sorter and remained in the wool sorting trade for 26 years. At 18 Greenwood became secretary of the local Chartist Association and was a librarian for the Rochdale People's Institute.^[1][2]

In 1846 he joined the recently formed Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, serving on the management committee and later becoming president.^[1] He was also active in the co-op's educational department and gave classes.^[3][4] He was a founding member and the first chair of the Rochdale Corn Mill Society, later playing a key role in making the mill profitable following mismanagement.^[1][3][5]

Greenwood strongly advocated for a federal wholesale society to supply retail co-operatives and helped lobby for changes to the Industrial and Provident Societies Partnership Act to permit the establishment of such a society. Upon its founding in 1863 Greenwood was elected president of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Industrial Provident Society, later shortened to the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). From 1874 to 1878 he was the CWS's cashier, and later served as the society's bank manager.^[1]

Alongside his roles in the CWS he was a founder and director of the Co-operative Insurance Company, spent 25 years as chairman of the Co-operative Newspaper Society, and served on the central board of the Co-operative Union. In 1892 he was awarded the honour of serving as President of Co-operative Congress.^[1]

In 1886 his wife, Betty, died. His daughter, Melinda, was an active early member of the Co-operative Women's Guild, serving as the Guild's vice-president.^[6][7] Greenwood died on the 3 May 1911 at home in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, and was buried in Rochdale Cemetery.^[1]

References

1. Bing, H. F.; Saville, John (1972). "GREENWOOD, Graham (1824–1911)". In Bellamy, Joyce M.; Saville, John (eds.). Dictionary of Labour Biography. Vol. 1. Internet Archive. London: Macmillan. pp. 141–142. ISBN 978-0-333-42757-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
2. Cole, G. D. H. (1944). A Century of Co-operation. Internet Archive. George Allen & Unwin. p. 84.
3. Birchall, Johnston (1994). Co-op: The People's Business. Manchester University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7190-3861-7. from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
4. Redfern, Percy (1913). The Story of the C.W.S.: The Jubilee History of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited, 1863-1913. Internet Archive. Manchester: C.W.S. p. 380.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
5. Holyoake, George Jacob (1900). The History of the Rochdale Pioneers, 1844–1892. Internet Archive. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. pp. 29–30, 118–119.
6. Blaszak, Barbara J. (2000). The Matriarchs of England's Cooperative Movement: A Study in Gender Politics and Female Leadership, 1883–1921. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0-313-30995-7. OCLC 42061132. from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
7. Gurney, Peter, ed. (2020), ""Vice President's Address", Miss Greenwood on Women's Position, Report of the 17th Annual Congress of Delegates from Co-operative Societies…1885 (Manchester: Co-op Union, 1885), 71–72", Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Socialism, Oxon: Routledge, vol. 2, pp. 253–254, doi:10.4324/9780429452352-36, ISBN 978-1-138-49019-2, S2CID 228952153, from the original on 8 July 2022, retrieved 18 July 2022