Alfred Walter Henry Allen, Baron Allen of Fallowfield, CBE (7 July 1914 – 14 January 1985)[1] was a British trade unionist and governor of the BBC.

Early life

Born in Bristol, he was educated at East Bristol School and worked then for the Bristol Co-operative Society until 1940, when he joined the Royal Air Force.[2] After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Allen left the Force as a sergeant and was chosen as an area organiser of the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers in the year thereafter.[2] Following its merger into the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers in 1947, he became a national officer in 1951.[2] Allen was elected the Union's general secretary in 1962, a post he held for seventeen years until 1979.[3] In the 1967 Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[4]

Allen was a member of the general council of the Trades Union Congress and in 1974 was nominated its president.[5] On 10 July of the latter year, he was created a life peer with the title Baron Allen of Fallowfield, of Fallowfield, in Greater Manchester.[6] In 1977, Allen served in the Board of Governors of the BBC.[7]

In 1940, he married Ruby Millicent Hounsell and they had a son and a daughter.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Leigh Rayment - Peerage". Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Who Is Who 1963. London: Adam & Charles Black. 1963. p. 42.
  3. ↑ Taylor, Robert (1980). The Fifth Estate: Britain's Unions in the Modern World. Pan. p. 396. ISBN 0-330-25943-1.
  4. ↑ "No. 44326". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1967. p. 6277.
  5. ↑ McIntosh, Sir Ronald (2006). Challenge to Democracy: Politics, Trade Union Power and Economic Failure in the 1970s. Politico's. p. 133. ISBN 1-84275-157-3.
  6. ↑ "No. 46352". The London Gazette. 24 September 1974. p. 7918.
  7. ↑ "BBC, Official Website - History of the BBC" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2009.
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