Richard Bell (1859, Merthyr Tydfil—1 May 1930) was one of the first two British Labour Members of Parliament elected after the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900. 1859 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Merthyr Tydfil (Welsh: Merthyr Tudful) is a town and county borough in the traditional county of Glamorgan, south Wales, with a population of about 55,000. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Labour Party is a a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) was formed on February 27, 1900, at a conference at which representatives of the main socialist groupings in the United Kingdom were present. ... 1900 is a common year starting on Monday. ...

Bell was a high-profile trade unionist, the general secretary of the Railway Servants union. He was elected for Derby, a two-member constituency, alongside a Liberal in the 1900 general election. He sympathised with the Liberals on most issues, except where issues directly affected his union. This meant that he was not very compatible with the other Labour MP, Keir Hardie, a committed socialist member of the Independent Labour Party. A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... the term General Secretary (alternatively First Secretary) denotes a leader of various unions, parties or associations. ... RMT is an acronym for: National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Recovered Memory Therapy This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Derby (pronounced dar-bee ) is a city in the East Midlands of England. ... The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as... The UK general election of 1900 was from 25th September - 24th October 1900. ... James Keir Hardie (August 15, 1856 - September 26, 1915) was a Scottish born socialist and labour leader, and the first Labour MP to be elected to the UK parliament. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. ...

By 1903, Bell was struggling to adhere to the rules of the LRC group in Parliament, which now had five members following a series of by-elections. By 1904, he was considered to have lapsed from the group and was associated with the Liberal Party. He was re-elected at the 1906 general election. The UK general election of 1906 was from 12th January – 8th February 1906. ...

His supporters in the Derby Trades Council became disillusioned with Bell and he was replaced at the January 1910 general election by Jimmy Thomas, another railway worker. After leaving Parliament, Bell joined the Employment Exchange branch of the Board of Trade. He retired from that in 1920 but continued in local politics and served as a member of the Southgate Urban District Council 1922-29. The UK general election of January 1910 was held from 15th January – 10th February 1910. ... James (Jimmy) Henry Thomas, (October 3, 1874 - January 21, 1949) was a British trade unionist and Labour politician. ... The Board of Trade was a body the government of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions. ... Southgate refers to a number of different places. ...