Hilda Peace Unsworth (11 November 1918 – 26 November 2015) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 who served as the last president of the

Amalgamated Weavers' Association The Amalgamated Weavers' Association, often known as the Weavers' Amalgamation, was a trade union in the United Kingdom. Initially, it operated in competition with the North East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Association in part of its area, ...

Early life

Unsworth was born in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark Armistice of 11 November 1918, the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I a ...

, and as a result was given the middle name "Peace".

Career

Unsworth worked in a cotton mill for many years and became involved in the

Bolton Weavers' Association The Bolton and District Weavers', Winders' and Warpers' Association was a trade union representing cotton mill workers in the Bolton area of Lancashire in England. The union was the first in the Lancashire cotton industry to appoint a woman as i ...

. The Bolton Weavers were unusual among trade unions in that a woman, Alice Foley, held a prominent position, becoming secretary in 1948. Unsworth became Foley's assistant, and when Foley retired, in 1961, Unsworth succeeded her as the full-time secretary of the union. Unsworth's period as secretary included the centenary of the founding of the union, and to mark this, she and her assistants visited every mill in the town and gave each member £1. In 1970, Unsworth was elected as the president of the Amalgamated Weavers' Association (AWA), the first woman to hold the post. This enabled her to take part in numerous trade union delegations overseas, on which she would prioritise investigating equal rights, maternity care and the position of women prisoners. Unsworth was also the second woman to serve as president of the Bolton

Trades Council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or ...

. The AWA became part of the Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union in 1974, but Unsworth remained leader of the Bolton Weavers until her retirement in 1978. In retirement, she served as a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

, and was chair and president of the Queen Street Mission Trust for many years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unsworth, Hilda 1918 births 2015 deaths People from Bolton Presidents of the Amalgamated Weavers' Association