John Hodge (politician)  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search Hodge in the mid 1900s  John Hodge
(29 October 1855 – 10 August 1937) was a Coalition Labour party
politician in the United Kingdom, and was the first Minister of
Labour and the second Minister of Pensions.  Early life[edit]
Hodge was born in Linkeyburn, Ayrshire and attended Ironworks
School and Hutcheonstown Grammar School. When he was thirteen
Hodge left school to become a solicitor's clerk and then worked
a grocer's shop before joining the local iron works as a
puddler—the same job as his father.  Hodge first became involved
with trade unionism while at the local iron works. Hodge helped
form the British Steel Smelters' Association in 1885, of which
he would be elected secretary, because their bosses at Colville.
They were informed by works in Motherwell that their wages would
be twenty per cent lower than before. The BSSA was a success and
by the summer of 1886 practically every smelter in Scotland had
become a me