Thomas Henry Burlison, Baron Burlison, DL (23 May 1936 – 20 May 2008) was a British footballer, GMB trade unionist and

Treasurer of the Labour Party A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

. He was the first professional footballer to take a seat in the House of Lords. Burlison was born in Edmondsley,

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, the son of a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

, Robert Burlison, and his wife, Georgina. He was educated in Edmondsley and worked as a panel beater from 1951 to 1957, joining the General and Municipal Workers' Union (GMWU, later merged to form the GMB).

Professional football

He was a professional footballer from 1953 to 1965 (playing for Lincoln City, Hartlepool United and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

). Between 1959 and 1961 he did National Service in the Royal Air Force.

GMWU/GMB trade union

He became a regional officer of the GMB in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1965, and regional secretary in 1978. A polite and unassuming man with a low profile, he was an effective "fixer" behind the scenes, drawing from a base in the union's heartland in the northeast and setting many on the path to power. His staff included former Labour ministers Nick Brown and Doug Henderson, and former MEP and Labour leader in the European parliament Alan Donnelly. He was also involved in the selection of many Labour MPs, including Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson. He was involved in the negotiations in 1982 to merge the GMWU with the Boilermakers to form the

General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...

. He was runner-up behind John Edmonds in the election for general secretary of the GMB in 1985. The GMB merged with APEX in 1989 for form the GMB Union, and Burlison served as deputy general secretary of the merged union from 1991 to 1996.

Labour Party

He was also treasurer of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1996. He was chairman of the TUC northern region for nine years. He was also a trustee of the Board of Governors of the University of Northumbria, a Deputy Lieutenant and Honorary President of Hartlepool United. He was an important moderniser on Labour's National Executive Committee in the years before the party's landslide victory at the 1997 general election.

Baron Burlison

On 21 October 1997, he was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Burlison, ''of Rowlands Gill, in the County of Tyne and Wear''. He was a working peer, and was a Lord in Waiting (a Government whip in the House of Lords) from 1999 to 2001. Burlison married Valerie Stephenson in 1981. They had one son and one daughter. Burlison lived in Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear, for at least 20 years. He died in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

on 20 May 2008 at the age of 71.

References

*
Obituary: ''The Independent'', 23 May 2008Obituary: ''The Guardian'', 11 June 2008Obituary: ''The Times'', 20 June 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burlison, Thomas 1936 births 2008 deaths People from County Durham Footballers from County Durham People from Rowlands Gill Politicians from Tyne and Wear Footballers from Tyne and Wear Labour Party (UK) life peers Life peers created by Elizabeth II Deputy Lieutenants of Tyne and Wear English footballers Lincoln City F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Darlington F.C. players English trade unionists Labour Party (UK) officials British sportsperson-politicians Association football wing halves