Sir James Sexton CBE (13 April 1856 – 27 December 1938) was a British trade unionist and politician. Sexton was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 13 April 1856 to an Irish-born family of market traders, who soon moved to St Helens, Lancashire. After leaving school he worked in a variety of jobs, including as a seaman and in a chemical factory, before becoming a docker on Liverpool Docks. In 1884 he set up his own business as a coal merchant. In 1889 he joined the new National Union of Dock Labourers (later National Union of Dock, Riverside and General Workers) and was elected General Secretary in 1893, defeating James Larkin. He held this post until the union joined the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1922, whereupon he became National Supervisor of the Docks Trade Group of the new un