Neil Scobie Beaton (18 August 1880 – 23 October 1960) 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 unionist 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 Employee ben ...

and

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

official. Born in Buickloch in the Assynt area of the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

, Beaton moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

when he was eighteen and worked for a large

grocer A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food preservation, packaged ...

s. After a few years, he found work with the St Cuthbert's Co-operative Association, which offered better pay and conditions, and this began Beaton's lifelong involvement with the co-operative movement.Joyce Bellamy, "Beaton, Neil Scobie (1880-1960)", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.I, pp.42-43 Beaton also joined the

National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants The National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks (NAUSAWC, often known as the Shop Assistants' Union) was a trade union representing retail workers in the United Kingdom. The union was founded in 1891 with the merger of t ...

, and in 1911 was appointed as its full-time Scottish organiser, greatly increasing its membership in the nation. Through this position, he was active in the Scottish Trades Union Congress, serving as its treasurer in 1916/17 and its president in 1918/19. In 1919, he left the employment of the union to become an agent of the

Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society 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 ...

(SCWS), but initially he retained membership of the Shop Assistants' Union, and even served as its president in 1921/22. With the SCWS, Beaton focused on establishing co-operative stores, particularly in the Highlands. He served as president of the SCWS from 1932 to 1946, during which time he was centrally involved in founding the International Co-operative Petroleum Agency and the International Co-operative Wholesale Agency. He was President of the Co-operative Congress in 1942, and also served on a number of government committees and quangos including the

Royal Commission on the Press Three Royal Commissions on the Press were held in the United Kingdom during the 20th century. The first (1947–49) proposed the creation of a General Council of the Press to govern behaviour, promote consumer interests and conduct research into t ...

. In his spare time, Beaton served on Edinburgh City Council for three years, as a Labour Co-operative member.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaton, Neil 1880 births 1960 deaths Councillors in Edinburgh Labour Co-operative politicians People from Sutherland Presidents of Co-operative Congress Scottish trade unionists