Single or Return - the official history of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association

Chapter Twenty-One

• The 1945 General Election;
• The New Social Programme;
• Industrial Democracy.

"We do not believe that any Labour voter expects the millennium in five minutes - or in five years. He does expect a start to be made, and the King's Speech shows that it will be, and immediately."

G. M. H. Morris

Editor The Railway Service Journal September 1945.

The 1945 General Election

Following the defeat of enemy forces in May 1945, Winston Churchill formed a new "Caretaker" Government, with the Labour Party as its official opposition. Determined to reap the rewards of his war time popularity, Churchill called a General Election with the expectation of achieving a victory similar to that of Lloyd George in 1918. The electorate were not to be deceived - they remembered only too well the hardships of the pre-war period including unemployment and the Means Test, and were determined that Britain should have a better future in the post-war world. Not only that - Socialism was on the agenda.

Labour set out its new programme in Let Us Face the Future. It was unequivocal in its support for public ownership and said:

"Co-ordination of transport services by rail, road, air and canal cannot be achieved without unification. And unification without public ownership means a steady struggle with sectional interests or the enthronement of a private monopoly, which would be a menace to the rest of industry."1

It was now for the people to decide at a General Election and that took place on 5th July 1945.

The Labour Party launched an election appeal of one shilling (5p) from every contracted-in member, and the RCA was the first union to respond. With 89.8 per cent of its 89,000 member paying the political levy it sent a donation of £5,000. Nine RCA members had been adopted as official candidates and a further 12 stood unofficially. Those elected are listed in the following table.

Table 27

* RCA officially sponsored MP.

When the result of the General Election was announced on 26th July, it revealed the biggest change in Parliament since 1906 - and this time, Labour was the victor. The Labour Party won 393 seats, the Conservatives 197, the Liberals 12 and the CP increased its representation from one to two. Labour had, for the first time, an overall majority. Churchill resigned, and was replaced by Clement Attlee as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. For a union of its size, the RCA's contribution to Labour's victory was impressive. Of all the trade union sponsored MPs elected to Parliament in the 1945 General Election, only the NUM, the TGWU, the NUR and the NUGMW had more than the RCA.

Thirty railway nominated MPs heard the King deliver his speech to Parliament on 15th August, proclaiming a series of measures that set the social and political parameters for the next 34 years. Fifteen were members of the NUR, 2 came from ASLEF and 15 from the RCA. Two of these, Cecil Poole and Joseph Sparks, were dual members of the NUR and RCA. For the first time, there were more railway employees in the House of Commons than railway directors, who only managed to have two of their number elected. The directors still retained their dominance in the House of Lords, but, here too, changes were taking place. Alexander Walkden, at the age of 72, was created Lord Walkden of Great Bookham, and then appointed Captain, Yeoman of the Guard, (Deputy Chief Whip) joining a small group of Labour Lords.

Attlee did not include any RCA members in his Cabinet but George Mathers, the only RCA member with experience of the 1929-1931 Labour Government, became Deputy Chief Whip; George Lindgren was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Insurance; John Belcher, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade; Henry Hynd was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the First Lord of the Admiralty and his brother J. B. Hynd, a member of the NUR head office staff and a former member of the RCA, was appointed as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. J. Henderson, a member of the NUR, served as Lord Commissioner to the Treasury. The following year, when Lindgren was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Civil Aviation, Thomas Steele replaced him at the Ministry of National Insurance. George Rogers was PPS to the Minister of Supply until 1949, when he went to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

George Mathers was the principal link between Parliament and the Association, and in 1946 he became Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, deputising for the King on all matters relating to the Church Assembly. This position had been held on only one previous occasion by a Labour MP and up to this time, only three others had held the office for more than one year. Mathers carried out his duties with great dignity and zest2 and was reappointed until 1949, and then again in 1951 - a tribute to his qualities. He was a member of the Privy Council and in 1951 was elevated to the peerage. He chose the title of Baron Mathers of Newtown St Boswells in the County of Roxburgh. This was not the end of his illustrious career and in 1956 he was the first trade unionist to be made a Knight of the Thistle, the highest Order of Chivalry in Scotland. When Mathers selected the coat of arms to mark his stall in the Thistle Chapel of St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, he included within it a circle with crossed quills in gold on a white background within a blue border studded with gold stars - the nearest approach in heraldry to the original RCA badge. To complement this, the letters RCA were actually incorporated into the ornamental ribbon which he used for ceremonial wear.

When the local elections were held in November 1945, the first since the declaration of war, Labour's results were sensational. Whereas the net number of seats gained by Labour in 1938 was a mere 11, in 1945 it was 1,348. Dozens of RCA members were elected to all levels of local administration and in Glasgow, the Council had 8 RCA members, the largest representation of any union. Joseph Deasy (Dublin No.1), at the age of 22, became the youngest member of any local authority in Ireland when he won a seat on Dublin Corporation; in Manchester, Alderman T. Adams JP was elected Lord Mayor in 1946.3 Having returned to Guernsey after the war, John Rhys Davies Jones4 became the first Labour Deputy to enter the Guernsey Parliament, (the States of Deliberation) representing St. Peter Port from 28th December 1948 to March 1955.

As the Labour Party developed its structure in Wales and England the RCA affiliated to all its Regional Councils, and before long it had members elected to virtually all Regional Executive Committees. RCA members continued to play a role in the affairs of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and from 1952 to 1954 S. L McCormick JP5 was a member of its EC.

The New Social Programme

Between 1945 and 1950 Parliament passed 310 Acts that fundamentally changed British society. The private sector continued to dominate the economy but the changes made were of major economic and political importance, not least being its first decision - to nationalise the Bank of England. Nationalisation then embraced coal mining, electricity, gas, civil aviation, and the telecommunication services. The vindictive Trade Disputes Act of 1927,6 which Churchill had stubbornly refused to revise in the early part of 1945, was repealed. This did not take place without bitter opposition from the Conservatives, and the last speaker in the Parliamentary debate was Quintin Hogg, whose father had steered the Act through the House in 1927. At 05.00 hours on 2nd April 1946, Hogg gave up the fight; the Bill was given its Third Reading and the civil service unions, with a membership of 378,000, rejoined the ranks of the TUC.

The Labour Government was intent on eliminating the Conservatives' pre-war approach to social issues and legislation laying the basis for the welfare state was introduced. Ray Gunter7 and Percy Morris were members of the Standing Committee that dealt with the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Bill, which set out to provide a comprehensive system of insurance against personal injury caused by accidents during employment; George Lindgren as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Insurance, played an important role to ensure its passage through Parliament. Another Act of social advance was that great monument to the 1945 Labour Government and its Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan - the National Health Service. Ray Gunter and Thomas Steele were members of the Standing Committee for the National Insurance Bill which provided a new framework for unemployment, sickness, maternity, widows benefits, death grants and the revenue for the National Health Service.

RCA members took a particular interest in the National Insurance Act as in 1911 the Association had launched a campaign to be excluded from the original insurance scheme. This had met with strong resistance from some railway companies but eventually they agreed to exemption. The Liberal Government was persuaded to insert a clause in its Insurance Bill stating that salaried railway employees, who were members of a superannuation fund established by an Act of Parliament, were exempt from contributing towards national insurance. Now, in 1948, for the first time, the majority of members were to subscribe to the new Insurance Fund.

The RCA supported the National Insurance Act and all the progressive measures that emanated from the Labour Government. Charles Gallie was appointed to the Minister of Power's Consultative Committee that dealt with the nationalisation of coal mining, but it was the nationalisation of the RCA's own industry which was awaited with the greatest interest. On 19th November 1945 Herbert Morrison told the House of Commons of the Government's intention to introduce, during the life of the present Parliament, measures designed to bring transport services, essential to the economic well-being of the nation, under public ownership and control.8

The political composition of Parliament may have changed but the railway companies and transport hauliers had not, and they spent large sums defending their interests. The Road Haulage Association lavishly distributed propaganda; posters were prominently displayed throughout the country and a 25 minute film was shown over 3,000 times in halls all over the country, with viewers being asked to sign a petition against nationalisation. Over one million postcards sent out by the Railway Stock Holders' Union resulted in approximately 600,000 replies, of which 97 per cent opposed nationalisation.9 When the Daily Herald10 accepted an advert on behalf of the LNER Stockholders' Association, RCA members were disappointed. The advertisement reminded shareholders that no dividend had been paid on over £35 million of Deferred Ordinary Stock since 1925, and it also attacked nationalisation. In 1946, the LNER published The State and the Railways - An Alternative to Nationalisation and the railway companies jointly produced British Railways and the Future. These suggested they had only one objective - the public interest and also claimed that they would have no difficulty in securing the necessary finance to rebuild the railway network. This was highly debatable. Parts of the industry were close to bankruptcy and with road hauliers taking an increasing share of the market, the railway companies had been having difficulties raising finance for some time. In 1935 the Government came to their rescue, through the Railways (Agreement) Act which raised £26,500,000. This decision was not opposed by the Association: sponsored MPs but they were convinced that the injection of funds would not solve the industry's problems. During the debate Walkden had used the opportunity to say that the railways should be nationalised and all transport undertakings co-ordinated. The railway companies were expected to put their business in order, but by 1938 they were again in crisis and revenue fell by 25 per cent. An independent tribunal told the Government that unless something was done to help, the railways would be in complete chaos, but the war came to their rescue with a guaranteed income for shareholders. When the war ended the railway companies were again in a desperate situation with much of the industry's infrastructure and equipment requiring a massive injection of capital. In the first year of public ownership, 769 locomotives and 85,000 wagons (30 per cent of which were over 35 years old), needed to be scrapped. The majority of stations and buildings were in poor condition and nearly 4,000 miles of railway track had to be partially or completely replaced in the first two years of nationalisation.

The Transport Bill, with 127 clauses and 13 schedules, was presented to Parliament on 27th November 1946. A British Transport Commission (BTC) was proposed with railways, the London Passenger Transport Board, and all ancillary undertakings including docks, ships and road transport coming under its control. In addition, railway-owned canals, 19 other canal undertakings and all privately owned railway wagons, which had been requisitioned by the Ministry of Transport, were to be transferred to the new body. The Bill also made provision for Executive bodies for Dock and Inland Waterways, Road Transport, London Passenger Transport, and Hotels. It was a massive undertaking and eventually became the biggest transfer of private property to public ownership seen anywhere in the world outside the USSR

When the Bill received its Second Reading in December, 50 MPs were placed on the Standing Committee to consider details and subsequent amendments. Twenty-nine Labour MPs were appointed, including 4 from the NUR. 1 from ASLEF and 3 from the RCA. The RCA members were Percy Morris, Ray Gunter and George Rogers. Parliamentary life had indeed changed since the Railway Act of 1921. As soon as the Bill was published it was passed to Arthur Russell Jones, who had looked after the Association's legal affairs since 1944. Now known as Russell Jones & Walker, it acts for the TSSA and its advice has proved to have been of considerable benefit to many of the Association's members11. During the Transport Bill's passage through Parliament, the Association liaised with the NUR and ASLEF, and a number of improvements suggested by Russell Jones and RCA members were included in the Act. These related to the negotiating machinery, which was amended to widen the scope of discussions between representatives of the BTC and employees, arrangements for superannuation and pension rights, including widows' and orphans' funds and compensation for loss of employment

The pressure that had been exerted by the Road Haulage Association came partly to fruition on 13th March 1947 when the Minister for Transport, Alfred Barnes (Co-operative Party), told the Standing Committee that he intended to remove the clauses from the Bill which limited the operation of 'C' licensed vehicles, i.e. those traders transporting their own goods up to a radius of 40 miles from their operating base.12 This decision undermined his original objective that all long distance road haulage would be carried by the proposed state-owned road haulage company. It was a decision he later came to regret and was one of the most contentious parts of the Bill. It divided the movement; Ray Gunter13 supported Barnes but both the NUR and TGWU voiced their opposition and at the Association's 1951 Conference, Tom Bradley14 said that the Minister had made a major mistake, which had left a fundamental flaw in the Transport Act15 Between 1947 and 1951 the number of 'C' Licences virtually doubled and although Barnes assured the trade unions that he would take action if the licences were abused, he failed to do so. Alarm at this rapid growth was expressed by W. R. Gerrard16 at the 1951 TUC when he said that Barnes decision on the 'C' Licence constituted a serious menace to the success of the nationalised transport industry.17

Another area of difficulty was compensation to shareholders. As early as March 1945 the RCA had been aware that this would become a controversial issue and the EC asked Harold Wilson, who had established his credentials as an economic adviser in the War Cabinet Secretariat, to examine the basis on which compensation should be paid. Arising from Wilson's report, the RCA rejected the creation of Special Transport Stock, as had been applied when the London Passenger Transport Board was introduced, as it would perpetuate a capitalist profit-seeking mentality.18 Instead, the Association opted for compensation to be based on fixed interest bearing Government Stock which gave its holders no further rights. As to the rate - this was left to the Government to decide, with the expectation that it would take into account the interests of the community as a whole. On the 18th November 1946, Alfred Barnes announced that compensation for British Transport Stock would be based on the stock market valuations for the 1st-8th November 1946, or February to July 1945, whichever was most favourable to those holding shares. It was a departure from the procedure that had been applied to other nationalised industries and the Financial Times accused the Government of obtaining nationalisation on the cheap.19 The Stock Exchange brokers and dealers thought it was pure confiscation20 with similar cries of anguish coming from shareholders. Charles Williams21 held a somewhat different point of view; when the RCA's Executive met in December, he said that the terms were grossly excessive, but his colleagues were not convinced.22

Fourteen months later the terms of compensation, based on the average market value of securities for November 1st-8th 1946, were made known but since the original announcement interest rates had increased and instead of receiving the expected 2½ per cent interest, shareholders actually obtained 3 per cent. Opinion had earlier ranged from fair to confiscatory, but everyone now agreed that the compensation was generous. The stockholders were jubilant. Ernest Short, Secretary of the Railway Stockholders' Union described it as distinctly better than anticipated23 and the Financial Times stated: The Treasury has played the game as nice as could be expected.24 Indeed they had, and shareholders now received not £25 million per annum but £30 million, without any risks attached.

The House of Lords strongly resisted the Transport Bill, but Lord Walkden used his experience and knowledge of the railway industry with masterly effect to promote and defend the Government's position. Nevertheless, the Lords, with their Conservative majority, carried 96 amendments. Of these, 42 were of a major character and were rejected when the Bill returned to the Commons. On 6th August 1947, the Bill was enacted and the BTC became operative on 1st January 1948. A new era for railway workers had begun.

Industrial Democracy

Following the 1944 Annual Conference the EC set up a subcommittee to develop its views on the administration of an integrated transport industry. These were published in September 1946 in a twenty four page pamphlet called On the Way to Greater Service. This was the culmination of a democratic process that had started in 1918 with the National Transport Services Bill. To the credit of the RCA much of the administrative machinery eventually established for the railway industry was similar to that outlined by the Association. There was also provision for a Transport Consultative Committee and Area Transport Users' Committees, but one important aspect was missing - the democratic participation of employees on management boards.

The Association had been planning and working for its members to be placed on the boards of management since 1912, gradually refining its policies over the years. Provision was made in On the Way to Greater Service for four representatives from the employees, one from the trading and travelling public and one from industry, to be members of the Authority. All appointees would be required to resign from their current employment and become full-time members of the National Transport Authority. MPs were excluded, as were all those who had an interest in any form of transport by way of investment or ownership. As part of the Association's proposals a National Consultative Council was suggested, consisting of representatives from the Transport Authority and the trade unions recognised in the industry. In addition, other bodies such as the TUC, employers organisations, and transport users would be represented on the Consultative Council. It did have one weakness - there was no provision for any direct communication between union representatives on the management boards and employees. The emphasis was solely on appointing representatives to senior boards and consultative bodies and, as board members were to be full-time, the dangers of isolation from the work force was very real. At this juncture it is worth noting that contained within Jim Haworth's Minority Report, which had been rejected at the 1935 Folkestone Conference, was an attempt to address this particular question.

The three rail unions had raised the subject of worker participation when they had met the Minister for Transport on 24th September 1946 and asked for appointments to be made from the ranks of organised workers in the industry. The unions proposed that a panel be instituted from which a selection for the various boards be made, but Barnes suggested that more consultation was required. The Minister was also asked to increase the proposed BTC from 5 members to 9 to give the workers a greater opportunity of representation, but this he turned down. A month later, the Swansea branch asked the EC to ensure that the management of the railways would be entrusted to men and women who advocated public ownership and certainly not to those who were unsympathetic, a point that received the support of the 1948 TUC. The logic of this was reinforced in 1957 following nine years experience of nationalisation, when Ray Gunter, as President of the TSSA asked, How much real damage has been done to our industry by highly paid executives who, because of little minds and doctrinaire politics, never wanted a nationalised transport industry to work?25

The demand for industrial democracy in one form or another was widespread; Albert Davies MP possibly epitomised the RCA's view on the subject when he wrote in The Railway Service Journal:

"Surely it is not intended to recruit the management and directorship of the railways - or other sections of the transport industry - on the traditional lines, which meant privilege for minority and frustration for the many? Merely to swop one set of taskmasters for another - call it nationalisation or what you will - will not measure up to my idea of Socialism if it excludes the workers."26

Ethel Chipchase told the National Conference of Labour Women that she welcomed the nationalisation of transport, but asked the Government to look again at the personnel of the various Executive Boards.

The BTC was composed of five full-time members and one part-time member, who were responsible for matters of policy, financial control, the preparation of schemes relating to fares, rates and charges, and the co-ordination of inland transport. The management and operation of the railways was in the hands of the Railway Executive (RE), with a unified railway system that became British Railways (BR). The Executive was composed of eight members, two of whom were part-time, all having specific functional responsibilities. The railway network was divided into six regions, The London Midland, The Western, The Southern, The Eastern, The North-Eastern, and the Scottish. The Chairman of the BTC was Sir Cyril Hurcomb GCB KBE who had been a distinguished civil servant. The Chairman of the RE was Sir Eustace Missenden OBE who had started his career as a railway clerk in 1899 and had become General Manager of the Southern Railway. A particularly interesting appointment was that of Lord Latham JP27 who succeeded Lord Ashfield as Chairman of London Transport. Latham had been a railway clerk in Norwich and an active member of the RCA until he left the railway industry to become an accountant. He was the brother of George Lathan and later changed his surname.

The appointment of prominent Labour supporters to the nationalised boards of management was rare. Concerned that accusations of jobs for the boys would be levelled against them, as indeed they were, preference was often given to known Conservative opponents and by 1949, of 87 people appointed to nationalised boards, 43 came from private enterprise, 9 were civil servants, 9 skilled technicians, 4 came from the armed forces and 7 were trade unionists. One trade unionist was appointed to the BTC - the former General Secretary of the NUR, John Benstead, who became its Deputy Chairman in 1949. W. P. Allen, the former General Secretary of ASLEF, was appointed to the RE and RCA member William Beckett,28 was appointed a part-time director of the Road Transport Executive. Harold Clay, Assistant General Secretary TGWU, was appointed to the Road Transport Executive and another TGWU member, John Donovan, joined the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive.

The RCA welcomed these appointments but the majority of railway workers expected more than nominal trade union appointees; they wanted to see greater democracy in management, and certainly within their working environment. With a railway work force of over 635,000 the RCA considered that at least two, if not more, employees should be members of the RE. A strongly worded letter was sent to the Prime Minister expressing bitter disappointment that the Government had failed to recognise the contribution that workers could make towards greater efficiency and the fact that the staff could not be expected to have any confidence in the proposed RE.29 Indeed, it was somewhat strange that RCA member Aubrey Ping could be appointed as a part-time director of British European Airways and William Beckett was on the Road Transport Executive, but not one member among BR's employees was permitted to participate in its own Board of Management.

The decision not to appoint staff to their own Boards was political. In addition, the Government still defined the status of its management and employees within the Act as officers and servants. Herbert Morrison's stance on worker participation has been dealt with in Chapter 17, and he was not alone. The Minister for Transport shared his opinion, and Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, said that in his experience there were not many workers capable of taking over large enterprises and until they gained more knowledge of managing industry, it would be almost impossible to have worker control in Britain, even if it were desirable30 Although some unions were calling for worker control, most simply wanted a share in the management of their industry. This certainly was the attitude of the RCA. When Frederick Bostock31 said on 1st January 1948 that the membership wished to be treated as partners, to be consulted through their elected representatives, to be allowed to share in the great task of planning for our country an efficient and economical transport system,32 he was, without question, echoing the mood of the membership.

Throughout the life of the 1945 Labour Government the trade union and labour movement repeatedly debated industrial democracy and at the 1949 Labour Party Conference, J. B. Figgins, the General Secretary of the NUR, called for effective worker participation in management. Similar views had been voiced at the TUC and the General Council, in its discussions with the Labour Party, emphasised the need to increase the proportion of trade union members on the boards of nationalised industries.33 The Government was not convinced and transport staff quickly found that very little had changed in local management attitudes. At the 1948 Annual Conference there were demands for a more positive leadership to be shown by senior managers towards improving industrial relations; given the military style of management that had been instilled into the culture of the railway system for generations, any sudden conversion to democracy would indeed have been remarkable.

The consultation machinery that had been established in 1935 was guaranteed by the Government until a new framework could be arranged. Everyone was aware that the functions and powers of LDCs and Sectional Councils required a drastic overhaul and union pressure led to the formation of the Joint Advisory Council on Welfare in June 1948. This consisted of 5 representatives of the RE and 5 trade union representatives, and was designed to cover a range of social and industrial matters including the welfare of women and junior employees, ambulance facilities, office accommodation (which remained a constant matter of criticism), canteens and rest rooms. Then, at the end of 1948, the RE and the trade unions reached an agreement in respect of Sectional Councils in each railway region. Complaints at the RE's failure to consult the unions on matters of importance finally led to the establishment of the British Transport Joint Consultation Council. This held its first meeting on 25th January 1949, and provided an opportunity to exchange information and views upon matters of common interest. Eleven trade unionists attended the meeting with representation coming from the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), the NUR, RCA, TGWU and ASLEF. In January 1950, every employee received a letter from the RE explaining that new arrangements had been agreed for closer staff consultation throughout the industry and consultation would take place at LDCs, Sectional Councils, Shops, Work and Line Committees, with issues being raised by either management or staff. In some cases local management found it hard to adapt and to fully grasp the potential of the LDCs; they also failed to appreciate the fact that staff did not go to meetings to make trouble, but to solve mutual problems!34 It was not exactly what the Association had set out to achieve in 1945, but a start had been made.

Chapter Twenty-One - Footnotes

[1]. Let Us Face The Future 1945 Labour Party General Election Manifesto.

[2]. The Times 27th September 1965.

[3]. T. H. Adams JP (Gorton). ASLEF member until 1933 when he joined RCA on promotion. First elected to Manchester City Council 1936.

[4]. J. R. D. Jones (Guernsey). One of 11 Labour candidates in Guernsey General Election. The Guernsey Evening Press (24th December 1948), said he was one of the island's trade union pioneers. Director Management Committee Guernsey Co-operative Society. Also a member of the TGWU and a District Chairman.

[5]. S. L. McCormick JP (Belfast No.I). Secretary, Irish (Northern) Divisional Council on its formation 1949. EC 1955-1961. Northern Ireland Labour Party NEC 1952-1954.

[6]. The repeal of the Trade Union Act 1927 was not immediately extended to Northern Ireland.

[7]. R. J. Gunter (Ebbw Vale, Southend, then Paddington) Joined the RCA 1926. Chairman, South Wales and Monmouthshire Divisional Council. TSSA National Treasurer 1953-1956; President 1956-1964. Treasurer, NFPW 1956-1960; ITF Auditor 1956-1964. Secretary and agent for Abertillery Labour Party 1935-1939. Elected to RCA Parliamentary Panel 1940. Labour Party NEC 1955-1956; Chairman Labour Party 1964-1965. MP 1945-1951, 1959-1972.

[8]. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, 19th November 1945 Vol. 416 Col. 35.

[9]. Railway Gazette 23rd August 1946.

[10]. Daily Herald 8th August 1946.

[11]. Advice from Russell Jones & Walker resulted in £4,711,384 being obtained for TSSA members between 1984-1994, covering accidents, industrial diseases and assaults while on duty.

[12]. The road vehicle licensing system was established under the Road and Rail Traffic Act 1933. It had been modified by later legislation but in essence it remained unchanged. An operator had to obtain the appropriate carrier's licence before using a goods vehicle. The "A" licence was for public carriers; the "B" licence for traders carrying the goods of other people as well as their own; the "C" license was for manufacturers and traders carrying goods on their own account only.

[13]. Gunter's decision was one he later regretted. The June 1959 TSSJ reported him as saying at the 1959 Annual Conference, We left out the "C" Licences and bitterly have we seen the consequences of our omission.

[14]. T. G. Bradley (Kettering). Joined RCA 1942. Secretary and chairman of branch. EC 1958-1961; TSSA National Treasurer 1961-1965; President 1965-1977; Acting General Secretary January-May 1977. Member Kettering Borough Council 1957-1961; Alderman Northants CC; Secretary Kettering Labour Party; President Kettering Trades Council; MP 1962-1983; Labour Party NEC 1966-1981 and its chairman 1975-1976. Treasurer NFPW 1963-1967. Governor, Ruskin College 1961-1965.

[15]. TSSJ July 1951.

[16]. W. R Gerrard JP (Liverpool No.5) Joined RCA 1915. EC 1942-1948. TSSA Trustee 1950-1975.

[17]. TUC Annual Report 1951.

[18]. On The Way To Greater Service RCA pamphlet.

[19]. Financial Times 19th November 1946.

[20]. Financial Times 20th February 1946.

[21]. C. Williams (Cardiff) EC 1943-1949.

[22]. RCA EC Minutes 14th December 1946.

[23]. Daily Worker 2nd January 1948.

[24]. Financial Times 2nd January 1948.

[25]. TSSJ October 1957.

[26]. The Railway Service Journal 28th November 1947.

[27]. Charles Latham joined Labour Party 1905; President NUC. Appointed to London Passenger Transport Board 1935. Leader London CC 1940-1947; Chairman LTE 1947-1953. Appointed Peer in 1942.

[28]. W. Beckett OBE (Preston). Joined RCA 1919. EC 1940-1946. Chairman SOC. Labour Councillor Preston Town from 1929, Alderman and Mayor 1946.

[29]. RCA EC Minutes 21st September 1947.

[30]. The Times 28th October 1946.

[31]. F. Bostock (Central and Head Office). Joined the Great Central Railway in March 1914 and the RCA's full-time staff at Cardiff in 1920. He was Chief Clerk under P. T. Heady in Binningham, Line Secretary on the Southern and GW Regions and became LMS Line Secretary in 1940. He was General Secretary from November 1947 to 13th July 1948. Member of the ITF Management Committee 1946-1948.

[32]. Daily Herald 1st January 1948.

[33]. TUC Annual Report 1949.

[34]. The Railway Service Journal July 1948.

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