William Kean

For the American general, see William B. Kean.

William Kean (17 March 1871 – 5 January 1954) was a British trade unionist.

Born in Sheffield, Kean became a cutler working in silver and a trade unionist. By his early twenties he was secretary of the small Sheffield-based Spoon and Fork Filers, Odd Workers and Stampers Society.[1] From this position, he masterminded a merger of several small unions which formed the National Union of Gold, Silver and Allied Trades (NUGSAT), completed in 1911, and became its first secretary.[2]

In 1921, Kean was elected to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), remaining in place until 1945, and serving as President of the TUC in 1934/1935.[3]

In his spare time, Kean was a magistrate, was active on the Sheffield Trades Council, a founder of Sheffield's Labour Representation Committee, and served on a variety of government committees.[2] In the 1939 New Year Honours, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.[4] He finally retired as secretary of NUGSAT in 1953, and died the following year.[2]

  1. ^ Trades Union Congress, Labour, vol.II, p. 64.
  2. ^ a b c Trades Union Congress, Report of Proceedings at the 86th Annual Trades Union Congress (1954), p. 319.
  3. ^ Hugh A. Clegg, Alan Fox and A. F. Thompson, A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889: 1934-1951, p. 435.
  4. ^ Jack Eaton and Colin Gill, The Trade Union Directory (1981), pp. 137–138.