Sidney Weighell
Sidney Weighell (pronounced "weal"; 31 March 1922 – 13 February 2002) was an English footballer, trade unionist and the General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen from 1975 to 1983.
Early life
He was born at 25 Gladstone Street, Northallerton, North Riding of Yorkshire in 1922 into a "Railway Family" (his father, Tom Weighell was a signalman, his grandfather Bill was a guard and his brother Maurice was a driver).[1] He was educated at a Church of England school, which he left at 15 and became an apprentice mechanic.
Railway work
In 1938 he took an apprenticeship at the road motor engineering department of the London and North Eastern Railway company. He became active in the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) immediately upon starting work for the railways, believing in 'one union for all railway staff'. This brought him into conflict with the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); Weighell was a so-called 'footplate grade', traditionally represented by ASLEF, not the NUR.[1] Weighell considered craft unions (unions catering to a particular job within an industry rather than to the industry itself) as outmoded and elitist, and apparently said so on many occasions at the Northallerton Railwaymen's club.[1]
In January 1940 he joined the locomotive department as a fireman, becoming a qualified engine driver in 1943. He left the railways in 1945 to become a professional footballer, but returned in 1947. In 1954 he was made a full-time divisional officer for the NUR, and moved to their headquarters in London. In 1965 he was elected Assistant General Secretary of the NUR, and his maiden speech at the Labour Party conference in 1966 was heavily critical of Frank Cousins' policies on income and pay restraint, further cementing his reputation as a "disruptive influence".[2]
In 1969 he was named as Senior AGS, becoming
Following rumours of a massive cut in rail services he threatened to stop NUR-sponsored MPs from backing any kind of bill.
During the 1960s he waged a campaign against the
Politics
In 1945 he joined the
Downfall
At the Labour Party conference in 1982, the NUR delegation decided to vote for the
Branded a cheat, Weighell was forced to offer his resignation, which a union conference convened in Birmingham accepted 41–36. Despite the scandal he maintained he had done the right thing, saying "I'm glad to have been a casualty if it means that the party executive does not fall into the hands of militants."[4]
Later life
After resigning in 1983 he moved back to
Personal life
On 1 September 1949, Weighell married Margaret Hunter, with whom he had one son and one daughter, Jennifer and Anthony. In 1956 Margaret and Jennifer were both killed when the family were involved in a car crash. Sidney himself spent several months in hospital, but returned to work after he had recovered. Later his only comment upon the crash was that, "Compared to it, other things didn´t seem so bad." He married a second time on 21 November 1959 to Joan Willetts, a market research interviewer, but no children resulted.[1]
Football
Weighell was a skilled
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Oxford DNB article:Weighell, Sidney". Retrieved 18 October 2008.
- ^ Pattinson, Terry (15 February 2002). "Sidney Weighell – Obituaries". The Independent. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ a b "Chapter Twenty-Eight- Single or Return, the official history of the TSSA". Retrieved 18 October 2008.
- ^ "Sid Weighell". The Daily Telegraph. London. 15 February 2002. Retrieved 29 July 2008.
- ^ Harper, Keith (15 February 2002). "Obituary: Sid Weighell". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 July 2008.
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