Arch, Joseph, 1826–1919, English labor leader, a Primitive Methodist preacher. He founded the National Agricultural Labourers Union in 1872 and became its president. In 1873, Arch visited Canada and the United States to study labor and immigration problems. He served (1885–86, 1892–1900) as one of the first labor members in Parliament and was instrumental in enfranchising agricultural workers.
See his autobiography (ed. by the countess of Warwick, 1898); biography by P. Horn (1971).
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