Edward Hooson

Edward Hooson was an English Chartist, British [co-operative movement|co-operator], and a wire drawer by trade.

Biography

Hooson was born near Halifax, Yorkshire, and had a limited education. He apprenticed as a wire drawer before moving to Manchester, where he became active in the chartist movement. He became close friends with the chartist poet Ernest Jones. He was a co-founder of the Union and Emancipation Society based in Manchester, an influential abolitionist campaign supporting the Union in the American Civil War. In the 1860s he was chairman of the Manchester branch of the Reform League.
He was a founding member of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Society and served on the committee from 1866 until his death.
Hooson died aged 44 on 11 December 1869 and was buried in Ardwick Cemetery in Manchester.