# Leicester and District Trades Union Council

The Leicester and District Trades Union Council brings together trade unionists in and around Leicester, in England.

## History

In the 1860s, the Leicester unions of Labourers, Trimmers, Hose Shirt and Drawers, and Sock and Top Union, formed a loose association to discuss matters of common interest, under the leadership of Isaac Abbott. In 1872, on the initiative of Daniel Merrick, it was replaced by a broader organisation, the Leicester Trades Council. The formation was inspired by concern over the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and perhaps also by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) being held in Nottingham in 1871.
In 1875, Phoebe Mason of the Seamers' and Stitchers' Society was elected to the council, the first woman known to have served on any trade council in the UK. That year, Leicester hosted the TUC, and Merrick, representing the trades council, was elected as President of the TUC. By 1891, the council had 17,000 affiliated members, of whom, 13,500 were members of the Leicester and Leicestershire Amalgamated Hosiery Union, or the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.
The council endorsed several candidates for the Leicester Town Council and School Board, including Merrick, Thomas Smith and George Sedgwick. In 1890, the council backed several Labour Association candidates, who were elected to Leicester Town Council as Liberal-Labour members, but thereafter, the growing influence of socialists on the council led it to distance itself from Liberal candidates. In 1893, this led it to support a May Day demonstration, in support of the movement for an eight-hour day, while at the 1894 Leicester by-election, it backed Joseph Burgess, the Independent Labour Party candidate. It became a founding affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900.
In 1962, the trades council sponsored a major arts festival in the city. From the late 1960s, the trades council became strongly involved in anti-racist activity in the city. In 1977, after the Conservative Party-controlled council gave the National Front permission to sell their paper outside Leicester Town Hall, the council's anti-racist committee organised a successful picket of it.

## Leadership
### Presidents

    1872: Daniel Merrick
    1884: Joseph H. Woolley
    1885:
    1890: Joseph Potter
    1891:
    1892: Charles Harris
    1893: George Banton
    1895:
    1896: Harry Hardwick Woolley
    1897:
    1899: Tom Carter
    1900: Job Cobley
    1901: Alfred Hill
    1902: Frederick Wheeler
    1903: Martin Curley
    1904:
    1905: George Albert Kenney
    1906:
    1907: George Hubbard
    1909:
    1914: T. Rowland Hill
    1915: E. Burns
    1916: Alfred Hill
    1917:
    1918: John Riley
    1919: Thomas Adnitt
    1920: Frank Acton
    1921: Edwin Baum
    1923: Albert Edward Monk
    1923: George Bell
    1924: George Albert Kenney
    1925: Ernest Grimsley
    1926: William Henry Smith
    1927: Fred West
    1928: Thomas Frederick Richards
    1929: Abraham Odell
    1930: Will Maw
    1931: Fred Jackson
    1934: Teddy Peacock
    1935: Edith Alice Scott
    1936: Alfred H. Hawkins
    1938: James W. Green
    1944: Bertram Powell
    1946: Teddy Peacock
    1946: Sidney Bridges
    1952: Arthur Marriott
    1954: Albert Hall
    1955: William Whitlock
    1956: Percy Watts
    1958: Teddy Peacock
    1958: Tamil Mukherjee
    1967: Ken Hazeldeane
    1969: Bill Hynes
    1970: Albert Hall
    1972:

### Secretaries

    1872: Joseph Sharp
    1885: George Green
    1903: Tom Carter
    1910: Martin Curley
    1910: Fredrick Sutton
    1912: James Baum
    1916: Albert Edward Monk
    1918: James Baum
    1923:
    1926: T. Rowland Hill
    1932: Will Maw
    1945: