Vincent Tewson

Sir
Vincent Tewson
CBE MC
Born
Harold Vincent Tewson

(1898-02-04)4 February 1898
Bradford, Yorkshire
Died2 May 1981(1981-05-02) (aged 83)
Letchworth, Hertfordshire
OccupationTrade unionist
Years active1912–1960
Employer(s)Amalgamated Society of Dyers
Trades Union Congress
TitleGeneral Secretary of the Trades Union Congress
Term1946–1960
PredecessorWalter Citrine
SuccessorGeorge Woodcock
Board member ofInternational Confederation of Free Trade Unions
Independent Television Authority
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1917–1919
RankLieutenant
UnitWest Yorkshire Regiment
Battles / warsWorld War I
 • Western Front
AwardsMilitary Cross

Sir Harold Vincent Tewson CBE MC (4 February 1898 – 1 May 1981) was an English trade unionist who served as General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) from 1946 to 1960.[1]

Biography

Harold Vincent Tewson was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. After leaving school at the age of 14,[2] he began working in the office of the Amalgamated Society of Dyers, Finishers and Kindred Trades.[1]

He served in the Army during World War I, being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Regiment on 1 August 1917.[3] On 4 February 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross,[4] which was gazetted on 2 July. His citation read:

2nd Lieutenant Harold Vincent Tewson, West Yorkshire Regiment.
"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When his men came under very severe machine-gun fire he dashed in front, and so encouraged them by his fearless example that they drove the enemy back and captured the objective. When the fire became so heavy that a gap was caused on his flank, he ran along the front of the line, rallied the men and formed a defensive flank, thus saving a critical situation."[5]

On 1 February 1919 Tewson was promoted to lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the West Yorkshires.[6]

After the war, Tewson returned to Bradford to work for the Dyers Union.[1] He became involved with the Independent Labour Party, and, aged 25, became the youngest member of Bradford City Council.[2] He joined the TUC in 1925, as Organization Secretary, and was appointed Assistant General Secretary in 1931.[7]

Congress House, the TUC headquarters which was inaugurated in 1958, while Tewson was general secretary

In the late 1930s, during the Spanish Civil War, Tewson was active in the Aid Spain Movement, serving as Vice-Chairman of the Basque Children's Committee, an offshoot of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, founded to care for the nearly 4,000 Basque children evacuated to the UK on the ship Habana in May 1937.[8] He and his wife also organised a committee in Barnet that involved 40 organisations, including "three churches, each political party, the Odd Fellows, the British Legion and several others", all of which agreed to support individual Basque children financially,[9] and the Tewsons helped to run the Barnet home until 1946.[10] He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 1942.[11]

Tewson succeeded Walter Citrine as General Secretary of the TUC in 1946,[1] supporting the post-war economic recovery of Europe, and assisting in creating a trades union advisory Committee for the Marshall Plan. In 1949 he was the secretary of the conference at Geneva during which the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was created, and served as its President from 1951 to 1953.[1] He was knighted on 14 March 1950.[12] Tewson retired as General Secretary in 1960, and in November of that year was appointed a part-time member of the London Electricity Board.[13] In 1964 he was appointed a member of the Independent Television Authority.[14]


He died in Letchworth, Hertfordshire in 1981.[1]

His son Peter Tewson (b.1944) attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Barnet.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Sir Vincent Tewson". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Sir Vincent Tewson". The Times. London, England. 2 May 1981. p. 16.
  3. ^ "No. 30232". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 August 1917. p. 8319.
  4. ^ "No. 30507". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 February 1918. p. 1606.
  5. ^ "No. 30780". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 July 1918. pp. 7925–7926.
  6. ^ "No. 31285". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 April 1919. p. 4726.
  7. ^ "The Trades Union Congress, 1936-1939: Its history and organisation". University of Warwick. 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  8. ^ "Aid to Spain". Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  9. ^ Buchanan, Tom (3 October 2009). "Basque Refugee Children in Britain, 1937-1939: Personal memory and public history". Basque Children of '37 Association UK. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  10. ^ Fyrth, Jim (1986). The signal was Spain : the Spanish Aid Movement in Britain, 1936-1939. London: Lawrence and Wishart. ISBN 9780853156437.
  11. ^ "No. 35586". The London Gazette. 5 June 1942. p. 2489.
  12. ^ "No. 38865". The London Gazette. 17 March 1950. p. 1356.
  13. ^ "People in the News". Middlesex County Times. 12 November 1960. p. 14.
  14. ^ "No. 43403". The London Gazette. 7 August 1964. p. 6682.
Trade union offices
Preceded by Assistant General Secretary of the TUC
1931–1946 		Succeeded by
Preceded by General Secretary of the TUC
1946–1960 		Succeeded by