Walter Stevens (trade unionist)
Walter Charles Stevens (26 September 1904 – 24 October 1954) was a British trade unionist.
Born in Woolwich, Stevens began working at the age of ten, and completed an apprenticeship as an electrician by the age of twenty. He soon became a sound engineer at Denham Studios, and was also active in the Electrical Trades Union (ETU).[1]
Stevens became a full-time employee of the ETU in his thirties, serving for a while as the union's London Area Secretary, and in 1942 he was elected as Assistant General Secretary.[1] Around 1946, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and, in 1948, he became General Secretary of the ETU.[2] He won a landslide victory, with more than three times the votes of his opponent.[3]
In office, Stevens moved the union in a more militant direction, organising a wave of strikes in late 1953 and early 1954.[3]
In his spare time, Stevens enjoyed attending boxing matches, and he was involved in founding the Professional Boxers' Association.[1] He stood in the 1952 and 1953 elections for the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, but was unsuccessful.[3]
Stevens was seriously injured in a car accident in October 1954, and died a week later,[3] aged 50.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Graham Stevenson, "Stevens, Wally", Compendium of Communist Biography
- ^ "Communists in the unions", Manchester Guardian, 13 January 1948
- ^ a b c d "Obituary: Mr Walter C. Stevens", Manchester Guardian, 25 October 1954