John Mallinson

John Mallinson (1860 – 12 January 1929) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician.

Mallinson worked as a cordwainer, and moved to Edinburgh in 1883. He took evening classes at Heriot-Watt College, and became active in the Edinburgh Cordwainers' Union.[1] Although he held generally conservative views which were unpopular in the movement, his attention to detail and neutrality in chairing meetings were greatly valued, and he soon became a prominent figure.[2]

By the 1890s, he was secretary of Edinburgh Trades Council.[3] He was elected to Edinburgh City Council in 1893, only the second Liberal-Labour member of the council.[4] When the Trades Union Congress (TUC) came to Edinburgh in 1896, he served as its President,[4] and at the congress was also elected as its representative to the American Federation of Labour. He was surprised to be elected to the post,[2] but it did not change his view that the TUC had done little for Scotland, and he worked with John Keir to establish the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).[5] However, when the STUC was actually established, he was unhappy with its structure, and unsuccessfully argued for a delay in creating it.[6]

In 1908, Mallinson was appointed as Chief Attendance Officer to Edinburgh Council. He stood down from his trade union and political posts, but remained a magistrate. He died suddenly in 1929 while at work.[4]

References
  1. The Border Magazine, vol.8, pp.21-23
  2. American Federationist, vols.3-4, p.191
  3. The Samuel Gompers Papers: A national labor movement takes shape, 1895-98, p.249
  4. "Obituary: Ex-Baillie Mallinson", Manchester Guardian, 14 January 1929
  5. Steve Lawton, 100 years of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, New Worker
  6. Angela Tuckett, The Scottish Trades Union Congress, p.55
Trade union offices
Preceded by
Edward Cowey and James Mawdsley		 Trades Union Congress representative to the American Federation of Labour
1896
With: Sam Woods		 Succeeded by
Edward Harford and Havelock Wilson
Preceded by
John Hagan Jenkins		 President of the Trades Union Congress
1896		 Succeeded by
John Valentine Stevens
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