Ernest Bevin (1881-1951) was the first general secretary of the Transport
and General Worker's Union 1921-1940). He then entered Parliament serving
first as Minister of Labour and National Service in Churchill's War
Cabinet (1940-5) and then as Foreign Secretary in Atlee's government
(1945-51). Bevin was born Somerset in 1881
to poor parents. Orphaned by the age of six and having the briefest of
formal educations, he became a farm labourer. He moved to Bristol when he
was eighteen
where he worked as a van driver, became a Baptist lay preacher. Bevin joined the
Dockers' Union and later became a paid official. When the Dockers Union
joined with over 30 other unions to form the Transport and General Workers
Union (TGWU) Bevin was elected general secretary.
In the major dock dispute in 1920 Ernest Bevin argued the dockers' case when the dispute went to arbitration. According to Howie (1986) he made a great impression, especially by exhibiting the actual amount of food a docker's wages would buy. Through his advocacy most of the demands were achieved and Ernest Bevin became known as the 'the dockers' KC'.
