Vincent Tewson

Sir Harold Vincent Tewson (born February 4, 1898 in Bradford , Yorkshire, † May 2, 1981 in Letchworth Garden City , Hertfordshire ) was a British trade unionist. Tewson served as general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) from 1946 to 1960.

Life and activity

Tewson dropped out of school when he was fourteen.

From 1917 Tewson took part in the First World War with the West Yorkshire Regiment of the British Army. On August 1, 1917, he was appointed second lieutenant and on February 4, 1918, he received the Military Cross for his services .

After the war he worked in the Dyers Union. In 1923 he became a member of Bradford City Council.

In 1925 Tewson joined the union congress as the secretary for organizational matters, in which he took the position of assistant general secretary in 1931, which he held for fifteen years until 1946.

In the 1930s, Tewson distinguished himself as one of the strongest advocates and supporters of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War in Britain's public life: in 1937, he became vice chairman of the Basque Children's Committee , an organization that helped 4,000 children in distress due to the war the Basque Country, who were evacuated to Great Britain in May 1937.

At the end of the 1930s, because of his position as one of the leading British trade unionists, Tewson was targeted by the police forces of National Socialist Germany, who classified him as an important target: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB, a directory of people , which the Nazi surveillance apparatus regarded as particularly dangerous or important, which is why they should be located and arrested with special priority in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the occupation forces by the occupying troops.

In 1946, Tewson was named general secretary of the union convention to succeed Walter Citrine . He held this position until 1960. During this time he also acted as secretary of the international trade union conference in Geneva where the founding of the International Confederation of Free Trad Unions (ICFTU) was decided in 1949, as its president he was from 1951 to 1953.

Tewson had been Commander of the Order of the British Empire since June 1942 and was promoted to Knight Bachelor on March 14, 1950 , so that from then on he was allowed to use the title Sir .

After his retirement in 1960, Tewson took over the position of a member in 1964 on the independent body for the supervision of British television ( Independent Television Authority ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Tewson in the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London) .