George Middleton (trade unionist)

George Walker Middleton CBE (4 April 1898 – 8 August 1971) was a Scottish trade union leader.

Middleton grew up in Glasgow and attended Keppochhill School before becoming active in the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers.[1] He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), becoming the party's Glasgow District Organiser,[2] and stood unsuccessfully in Glasgow St Rollox at the 1929 general election. That year, he was a key leader of the Glasgow Hunger March.[3]

Middleton served as secretary of the Glasgow Trades Council from 1942 until 1949,[3] then in 1949 was elected as General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), serving until 1963. In retirement, he chaired the Herring Industry Board and served as vice-chair of the Economic Planning Council for Scotland.[1]

Middleton was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1952 New Year Honours.[1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c "MIDDLETON, George Walker", Who Was Who
  2. ^ Nigel West, Mask: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain, p.10
  3. ^ a b Ian MacDougall, Voices from Work and Home, p.509
  4. ^ UK list: "No. 39421". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 1951. p. 12.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.