David Alexander Mackenzie (22 March 1922 – 31 December 1989) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

leader. Born in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

, Mackenzie was educated at Merkinch Public School and then Inverness High School. He left school at the age of fourteen and found work with the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. Returning to the railway after the war, Mackenzie became active in the

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) is a trade union for workers in the transport and travel industries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head office is in London, and it has regional offices in Bristol, Derby, Dublin, Manche ...

(TSSA). From 1952, he worked full-time for the union as a divisional secretary, and was promoted to Senior Assistant Secretary in 1966 and Assistant General Secretary in 1968. In this role, he began representing the union on various external bodies, including the Non-Manual Workers' Committee of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

, the Air Transport and Travel Industry Training Board, and the Hotel and Catering Industry Training Board. In 1973, Mackenzie was elected as General Secretary of the TSSA. He took early retirement in 1977 due to poor health, but in time his health improved, and he worked as a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

from 1980 until his final retirement in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie, David 1922 births 1989 deaths General Secretaries of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association People educated at Inverness High School People from Inverness Scottish trade unionists Royal Navy personnel of World War II