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
Trade union offices
Preceded by
Edward Cowey and James Mawdsley		 Trades Union Congress representative to the American Federation of Labour
1896
With: Sam Woods		 Succeeded by
Edward Harford and Havelock Wilson
Preceded by
John Hagan Jenkins		 President of the Trades Union Congress
1896 		Succeeded by
John Valentine Stevens
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