John Mallinson

John Mallinson (1860 – 12 January 1929) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician.

Mallinson worked as a cordwainer, and moved to Edinburgh in 1883. He took evening classes at Heriot-Watt College, and became active in the Edinburgh Cordwainers' Union.^[1] Although he held generally conservative views which were unpopular in the movement, his attention to detail and neutrality in chairing meetings were greatly valued, and he soon became a prominent figure.^[2]

By the 1890s, he was secretary of Edinburgh Trades Council.^[3] He was elected to Edinburgh City Council in 1893, only the second Liberal-Labour member of the council.^[4] When the Trades Union Congress (TUC) came to Edinburgh in 1896, he served as its President,^[4] and at the congress was also elected as its representative to the American Federation of Labour. He was surprised to be elected to the post,^[2] but it did not change his view that the TUC had done little for Scotland, and he worked with John Keir to establish the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).^[5] However, when the STUC was actually established, he was unhappy with its structure, and unsuccessfully argued for a delay in creating it.^[6]

In 1908, Mallinson was appointed as Chief Attendance Officer to Edinburgh Council. He stood down from his trade union and political posts, but remained a magistrate. He died suddenly in 1929 while at work.^[4]

References

1. ↑ The Border Magazine, vol.8, pp.21-23
2. 1 2 American Federationist, vols.3-4, p.191
3. ↑ The Samuel Gompers Papers: A national labor movement takes shape, 1895-98, p.249
4. 1 2 3 "Obituary: Ex-Baillie Mallinson", Manchester Guardian, 14 January 1929
5. ↑ Steve Lawton, 100 years of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, New Worker
6. ↑ Angela Tuckett, The Scottish Trades Union Congress, p.55