| Abraham Greenwood | |
| Birth Date: | 1824 |
| Birth Place: | Rochdale, Lancashire, England |
| Death Place: | Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, England |
| Children: | Melinda Greenwood |
Abraham Greenwood (1824 – 3 May 1911) was a prolific English co-operator who from 1863 to 1870 served as the first President of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.[1]
Greenwood was born in 1824 in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of a blanket manufacturer, David Greenwood and his wife Martha. Greenwood trained as a weaver, and then apprenticed as a wool sorter and remained in the wool sorting trade for 26 years. At 18 Greenwood became secretary of the local Chartist Association and was a librarian for the Rochdale People's Institute.[2]
In 1846 he joined the recently formed Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, serving on the management committee and later becoming president. He was also active in the co-op's educational department and gave classes.[3] [4] He was a founding member and the first chair of the Rochdale Corn Mill Society, later playing a key role in making the mill profitable following mismanagement.[5]
Greenwood strongly advocated for a federal wholesale society to supply retail co-operatives and helped lobby for changes to the Industrial and Provident Societies Partnership Act to permit the establishment of such a society. Upon its founding in 1863 Greenwood was elected president of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Industrial Provident Society, later shortened to the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). From 1874 to 1878 he was the CWS's cashier, and later served as the society's bank manager.
Alongside his roles in the CWS he was a founder and director of the Co-operative Insurance Company, spent 25 years as chairman of the Co-operative Newspaper Society, and served on the central board of the Co-operative Union. In 1892 he was awarded the honour of serving as President of Co-operative Congress.
In 1886 his wife, Betty, died. His daughter, Melinda, was an active early member of the Co-operative Women's Guild, serving as the Guild's vice-president.[6] Greenwood died on the 3 May 1911 at home in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, and was buried in Rochdale Cemetery.