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Alfred M. Wall

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This article is about the British trade unionist and political activist. For the British composer and violinist, see Alfred Wall (composer).

Alfred Mervyn Wall (1 November 1889 – 2 October 1957) was a British trade unionist and political activist.

Born in East Hamlet, Shropshire on 1 November 1889,[1][2] Wall moved to London to work as a compositor,[3][4] and was a member of the British Socialist Party (BSP). This affiliated to the Labour Party after World War I, and Wall was unexpectedly elected to Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough Council for Clapham North in 1918. In this role, he frequently clashed with the local socialist preacher and pioneer druid George Watson Macgregor Reid.[5] He was also sympathetic to anarchism, and chaired the Frank Kitz Appeal Committee.[6]

Wall represented the BSP's Clapham branch at the meeting which founded the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and subsequently sat as a Communist councillor.[4][7] Initially one of the communist's main speakers in London, he stood as a joint Communist Party-Labour Party candidate in Streatham at the 1924 general election, taking 13.8% of the vote.[8]

Wall represented the London Society of Compositors at the Labour Party conference in 1925, and eventually defected to the party, although he was still a communist in 1927, when he became a joint secretary of the "Hands Off China" campaign.[9] In 1926, he was elected as Secretary of the London Trades Council.[10] While holding this position, he spent much of his time promoting a trade union for actors, based on a closed shop principle. This became Equity, and he was elected as its first secretary.[11][12] Later in the 1930s, he also served as a vice-president of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee,[13]

In 1938, Wall was elected as General Secretary of the London Society of Compositors, and stood down from the London Trades Council.[14] During World War II, he served on the National Arbitration Union,[15] and on Lord Swinton's Security Executive.[16]

Wall retired from his union posts in 1945, but worked for a while as the secretary and welfare officer of C. and E. Layton.[17]

References

  1. ^ 1901 England Census
  2. ^ 1939 England and Wales Register
  3. ^ Trades Union Congress, Annual Report of the 1958 Trades Union Congress, p.314
  4. ^ a b Arthur Peacock, Yours fraternally, p.13
  5. ^ Arthur Peacock, Yours fraternally, p.15
  6. ^ Freedom, vols.29-38, p.30
  7. ^ Graham Stevenson, "Wall Alfred", Compendium of Communist Biography
  8. ^ Arthur Peacock, Yours fraternally, p.14
  9. ^ Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. 65, p.298
  10. ^ The Labour Magazine, Vol.11, p.240
  11. ^ Report of Annual Trades Union Congress (1973), p.434
  12. ^ Alan Clinton, The trade union rank and file: trades councils in Britain, 1900-40, p.173
  13. ^ "Aid to Spain", Modern Records Centre, Warwick University
  14. ^ V. L. Allen, Power in Trade Unions: A Study of Their Organization in Great Britain, p.291
  15. ^ A. W. Brian Simpson, In the highest degree odious, p.187
  16. ^ F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, p.65
  17. ^ World's Press News and Advertisers' Review, Vols.33-34, p.24
Trade union offices
Preceded by Secretary of the London Trades Council
1926–1938 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
New position
 General Secretary of Equity
1930–1934 		Succeeded by
Geoffrey Robinson
Preceded by General Secretary of the London Society of Compositors
1938–1945 		Succeeded by
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