Jimmy Knapp
Jimmy Knapp | |
---|---|
Born | 29 September 1940 |
Died | 13 August 2001 (aged 60) |
James Knapp (29 September 1940 – 13 August 2001) was a British
Early and private life
Knapp was born into a railway family in Hurlford, Ayrshire one of two boys. He was educated at Hurlford primary school and
He was distinguished by his broad Scottish accent and his height, standing 6'4" tall. He married Sylvia Florence Yeomans in 1965 and together they had a daughter. He married his second wife Eva Leigh, shortly before he died. He loved football and supported
He lived in West Wickham, and died of cancer in the Bromley, Greater London, aged 60. He was survived by his second wife Eva, his first wife Sylvia and their daughter Fiona.[2] He was the last person in Britain to have a full railway funeral in honour of the work he had done, and was carried from London to Glasgow by train with a piper to pipe him on and off the train at either end for burial in Hurlford in August 2001.[3]
Union career
He left school aged 15 in 1955 to work in the
When
As General Secretary of the NUR, he joined the General Council of the
The NUR merged with the
He also served as a director of the Trade Union Unit Trust from 1984, and on the board of the Unity Trust Bank from 1984, becoming its president in 1989. He was President of the Trades Union Congress in 1994.
His union career tracked a decline in union membership. In 1955, the NUR had over 350,000 members. When he became General Secretary in 1983, it was just over 140,000. By 1990, the combined RMT had a membership of 60,000.
After Knapp's death in August 2001, Bob Crow was elected as the new General Secretary of the RMT in February 2002.
References
- ^ Obituary: Jimmy Knapp, The Guardian, 14 August 2001
- ^ a b "Biography page at the Jimmy Knapp Cancer Fund". Archived from the original on 25 September 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2006.
- ISBN 978-0-85361-655-9.
- ^ Jimmy Knapp: Old school, new ideas, BBC News, 13 August 2001
- ^ a b Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 14 August 2001
- ^ Mike Anson, ‘Knapp, James [Jimmy] (1940–2001)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2005; online edn, Jan 2009 accessed 12 March 2014