David Garfield Davies, Baron Davies of Coity, (24 June 1935 – 4 March 2019 ) was a

Labour Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated to Labour Co-op; ) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidates contest elections under an el ...

peer in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

and a former

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

leader.

Biography

Davies left school at 15 and worked as an electrician, serving in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

1956–58. In 1969 he became a full-time trade union official with

USDAW The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of over 360,000 members. Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse wor ...

and rose through the ranks, becoming General Secretary of the union in 1986. He retired in 1997. Davies was named

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1996 and 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. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baron Davies of Coity, ''of Penybont in the County of

Mid Glamorgan Mid Glamorgan () is a preserved county of Wales. From 1974 until 1996 it was also an administrative county with a county council. Mid Glamorgan was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It consisted of part of the former adminis ...

'' on 1 October 1997. Davies belonged to the

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that advocates a strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party (UK), Labour ...

lobby group. Baron Davies of Coity died on 4 March 2019, aged 83.Usdaw mourns the passing of a former general secretary Lord Davies of Coity RIP
/ref>

References

Davies, Garfield, Baron Davies of Coity Davies, Garfield, Baron Davies of Coity Davies of Coity, Garfield Davies, Baron Life peers created by Elizabeth II Davies, Garfield, Baron Davies of Coity General secretaries of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Labour Friends of Israel {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub