Harry Pollitt, 1890-1960

Harry Pollitt, Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), was born in 1890 in Droylsden, near Manchester, the son of Sam Pollitt, a blacksmith's striker and his wife Mary Louisa, a skilled weaver. In 1894 he started his education at King Street British School, Droylsden. By the age of twelve he was assisting his mother at her power loom. In 1905 he started work at Gorton locomotive works. After serving his apprenticeship there he became a first-class member of The Boilermakers' Society, retaining this membership all his life. In 1909, he attended the Manchester School of Technology where he studied for his City and Guilds examination, despite working a 53 hour week.

Harry Pollitt was greatly influenced by his mother's socialism and they both joined the Independent Labour Party. In 1911, at the age of 21, he became the Secretary of Openshaw Socialist Society (OSS) and wrote a pamphlet championing Marxist doctrine, Socialism or Socialist Reform . The OSS was affiliated to the British Socialist Party (established 1912). Pollitt later became Branch Secretary.

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