Frank Chapple

Frank Chapple, Baron Chapple (8 August 1921 – 19 October 2004) was general secretary of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU), a leading British trade union.

Frank Chapple was born in the slum area of Hoxton, east London, in a flat above his father's shoe-repair shop. As was normal in most homes throughout the country at the time, there was no bath or running hot water in the Chapple home.[1] A Communist Party member early in his adult life, Chapple left the party after, and partly as a result of, the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Thereafter, he remained a forceful anti-communist.

He served as a member of the Trades Union Congress general council for 12 years to 1983, having first joined the union in 1937, and he had held offices at every level in the electricians' union. From 1966 to 1984 he was the general secretary of the EETPU. After his retirement, he was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer on 4 February 1985 taking the title Baron Chapple, of Hoxton in Greater London.[2] His successor was fellow anti-communist Eric Hammond.[3] One of Chapple's sons, Barry Chapple, was a regional official of Amicus, which succeeded the EETPU. Amicus merged with the TGWU in 2007 to become Unite the Union.

References

  1. ^ Goodman, Geoffrey (22 October 2004). "Obituary: Lord Chapple". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  2. ^ "No. 50030". The London Gazette. 8 February 1985. p. 1851.
  3. ^ "Union leader Lord Chapple dead". BBC News. 20 October 2004. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

Further reading

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Trade union offices Preceded byJock Byrne General Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union 1966–1968 Position abolished New post General Secretary of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union 1968–1984 Succeeded byEric Hammond Preceded byLes Cannon General President of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union 1972–1976 Position abolished Preceded byLes Cannon Electrical Group representative on the General Council of the TUC 1970 – 1982 Council reorganised Preceded byAlan Sapper President of the Trades Union Congress 1983 Succeeded byRay Buckton
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