Gordon Ramsay Sandison (17 April 1913 – 3 July 1958) was a British trade union leader. Sandison won a scholarship to study at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, before becoming a barrister. 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

Auxiliary Fire Service The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded ...

, and was its first member to serve on the executive of the

Fire Brigades Union The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is a trade union in the United Kingdom for wholetime firefighters (including officers up to chief fire officer / firemaster), retained firefighters and emergency control room staff. History The first recorded inst ...

. At the

1945 UK general election The 1945 United Kingdom general election was a national election held on 5 July 1945, but polling in some constituencies was delayed by some days, and the counting of votes was delayed until 26 July to provide time for overseas votes to be bro ...

, he stood unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. Sandison was elected as acting general secretary of

Equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership * Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the dif ...

in December 1946, and was appointed to the post on a permanent basis the following year. As leader of the union, he supported actors while theatres were closed due to a fuel shortage, organised more actors in film studios, and worked with the Musicians' Union and

Variety Artistes' Federation The Variety Artistes' Federation (VAF) was a trade union representing variety performers in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded on 18 February 1906, after discussions between the show business social club and charity the Grand Ord ...

to negotiate specific agreements for actors on television and radio, including repeat fees. Initially, many union activists were suspicious that Sandison wanted to use the post for his own political ambitions, but he countered this by establishing democratically elected committees to oversee each aspect of the union's activity. In 1956, Sandison was elected as president of the

International Federation of Actors The International Federation of Actors (french: Federation Internationale des Acteurs, FIA) is a global union federation bringing together trade unions representing actors. History The federation was established in 1952, on the initiative of Briti ...

. However, his health became increasingly poor, and he died on 3 July 1958, at the age of 45.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croasdell, Gerald 1913 births 1958 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Civil Defence Service personnel General Secretaries of Equity (trade union) Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates