Herbert Henry Elvin

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Herbert Henry Elvin (born July 18, 1874 in Eckington , Derbyshire , † November 10, 1949 ) was a British trade unionist.

Life and activity

Elvin dropped out of school at fourteen to become a preacher. In the following years he spent seven years in India. As a minister, Elvin was a founding member of the London Baptist Lay Preachers' Association. Because of his work as a preacher, he was arrested seven times by the police for unauthorized appearances in the open air ( open air preaching ) and sentenced once to prison. He later shifted his focus from preaching to religious and social work in London's East End.

In 1894 Elvin joined the National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers , one of the largest and most influential unions in Great Britain, which over time rose to become a leading official. In 1909 he was finally appointed general secretary of that organization, a post he held for more than thirty-two years until 1941.

In 1925 Elvin was elected to the General Council of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC), as its chairman he served in 1938 as the successor to Ernest Bevin .

Elvin ran for a seat in the House of Commons , the British Parliament , several times in vain : in the general election of 1922 he ran for the Labor Party in the constituency of Bath , in the election of 1924 in the Watford constituency and in both elections in 1929 in the constituency Spen Valley . Instead he was elected to the County Council on Middlesex .

At the end of the 1930s, the National Socialist police authorities classified Elvin as an important target: in the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people who the Nazi surveillance apparatus considered particularly dangerous or important, which is why they should be in the case A successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht should be located and arrested by the occupying troops following special SS commandos with special priority.

family

Elvin was married to Mary Jane, b. Dolly (1874–1962), with whom he had five children.

literature

  • B. Nield: "Elvin, Herbert Henry (1874-1949)", in: JM Bellamy / J. Saville (Ed.): Dictionary of Labor Biography , Vol. 6, 1982.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry on Herbert Henry Elvin on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London) .
personal data
SURNAME Elvin, Herbert Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Eckington , Derbyshire
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1949