Joe Naylor

Role: Coal miner, labour activist
Year of birth: 1872
Date of death: 05 Oct 1946
Cause of death: Cancer
Age at death: 74
Joe Naylor was born 1872 in Wigan, a coal mining town located in the North-East of England. A coal miner from boyhood, Naylor emigrated in 1908 to the United States and later Canada, working in the coal mines. He was a key figure in the Big Strike, and was blacklisted from the mines for nearly 15 years afterwards. President of the B.C. Federation of Labor in 1917 and a life-long Socialist, Naylor was a mentor to Albert Goodwin. He supported the inclusion of Japanese and Chinese miners in the union - the common enemy was the capitalists. He passed away 1947 in Cumberland, aged 74, following a long battle with cancer.