Sir Gavin Harry Laird CBE (14 March 1933 – 26 October 2017) was a Scottish trade unionist, who became General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and a Member of the Court of the Bank of England.

Growing up in Clydebank he attended a local high school then began working for Singer.[1] He became an Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) shop steward there, then convenor.[1]

Three years after taking up a full-time position with the union, he was elected to the AEU executive and later elected AEU general secretary, remaining in that position after the merger which created the AEEU.[1] He addressed the Confederation of British Industry annual conference in 1986 – an unusual move for a trade unionist at the time.[1]

He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 25 October 1992,[2] received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1994,[3] was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) under Margaret Thatcher's government and knighted in 1995 at the behest of Tony Blair.[1]

He retired from the AEEU in 1995[1] and died in October 2017 at the age of 84 after a long illness.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Rogers, Roy (28 June 1995). "An era ends with the going of Sir Gavin". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Gavin Laird". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  3. ^ "Honorary Graduates". Heriot-Watt University. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  4. ^ Sir Gavin Laird C.B.E. 1933-2017
Trade union offices Preceded byJohn McFarlane Boyd General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union 1982–1992 Succeeded byPosition abolished Preceded byNew position General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union 1992–1994 With: Paul Gallagher Succeeded byPaul Gallagher Preceded byTom Crispin President of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions 1986–1987 Succeeded byTodd Sullivan


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