George W. (George William) Daniels

Born in 1878 in the Manchester area, George William Daniels built an unusually hard-won academic career. Archives Hub says he worked in a coalmine and later as an electrician before studying at Ruskin College, Oxford, and then entering the University of Manchester as a mature student in 1908. He went on to earn degrees there and later taught economics at the university.

He became known as a political economist and historian, with a strong interest in industry and economic history. Sources describe him as Stanley Jevons Professor of Political Economy at Manchester, and as an active figure in learned societies, including the Chetham Society, where he served as vice-president, and the Manchester Statistical Society, where he was elected president.

Daniels wrote on subjects such as the English cotton trade, capital, labor, and consumers. His best-known work appears to be The Early English Cotton Industry, first published in 1920, and he also co-authored The Distribution of National Capital. He died in Manchester on December 17, 1937.