Richard Oastler (20 December 1789 - 22 August 1861) was an English labour reformer and abolitionist. He fought for the rights of working children in the Factory Act of 1847, and was also a prominent leader of the Factory reform and anti-Poor Law movement.
Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Oastler was the youngest of ten children born to a linen merchant Robert Oastler and his mother was a daughter of Joseph Scurr. Richard later became steward for Thomas Thornhill, the absentee landlord of Fixby, a large estate near Huddersfield. Richard Oastler attended a Moravian boarding school from 1798 to 1810, and then started training to become a barrister before his failing sight compelled a change of career, becoming a commission agent. In 1820, upon his father's death, he succeeded him as steward of the Thornhill estates, moving to Fixby Hall in 1821.
By 1836 Oastler was urging workers to use strikes and sabotage. This proved his downfall. Thornhill, hearing of his speeches, sacked him as his steward in May 1838 and called in unpaid debts. Oastler was unable to pay up and was jailed for debt on 9 December 1840.
Having maintained his campaigning activity while in prison by publishing weekly Fleet Papers devoted to the discussion of factory and poor-law questions, Oastler continued his work and achieved some sort of success when the 1847 Factory Act restricted children to a 10-hour day in cotton mills. But it was not until six years after his death in 1861 that the act was widened to encompass children working in all factories.
A statue currently situated in Northgate, Bradford stands as a memorial to Richard Oastler. Showing Oastler with two small children, it was the result of a national subscription; with most of the donations coming from Bradford, and given Oastler's close association with Yorkshire, Bradford was considered the most suitable site. The figures, sculpted by John Birnie Philip, were cast from three tons of bronze and cost £l,500. Significantly, the Earl of Shaftesbury, one of the great reformers for better conditions for children unveiled the statue, in 1869.
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