Sir Thomas Harry Gill (5 December 1885 – 20 May 1955) was a British
Labour Party politician, and
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
from 1929 to 1931.
Born at
Hutton Cranswick
Hutton Cranswick is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south from Driffield town centre, and on the A164 road.
The civil parish is formed by the village of Hutton Cranswick and ...
, Gill was educated at Driffield Grammar School. He became active in the
Railway Clerks' 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 ...
, serving as its president from 1919 until 1932. He was also prominent in the York Co-operative Society, serving as its president in 1916.
Gill was a supporter of the Labour Party, for which he stood unsuccessfully in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
in 1918 and 1922, then switched to contest Blackburn. He was again unsuccessful in 1924, but won the seat in 1929, before losing it in 1931.
Out of Parliament, Gill focused his time on the co-operative movement, serving on the board of the
Co-operative Wholesale Society
A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...
from 1932 to 1951, and as its president in 1948, as
president of the Co-operative Congress in 1949, and also as president of the
International Co-operative Alliance
The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) is a non-governmental co-operative federation or, more precisely, a co-operative union representing co-operatives and the co-operative movement worldwide. It was founded in 1895 to unite, represent an ...
from 1948 to 1955.
From November 1948 to January 1949 he was a member of the British delegation of the
Committee for the Study of European Unity, convened by the
Brussels Treaty Organisation
The Western Union (WU), also referred to as the Brussels Treaty Organisation (BTO), was the European military alliance established between France, the United Kingdom (UK) and the three Benelux countries in September 1948 in order to implement th ...
to draw up the blueprint of the future
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
.
He was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in the
1950 King's Birthday Honours List.
References
*
External links
*
1885 births
1955 deaths
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1929–1931
Trade unionists from Yorkshire
Politics of Blackburn with Darwen
Presidents of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association
Transport Salaried Staffs' Association-sponsored MPs
Knights Bachelor
People from Driffield
{{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub