John Cliff

Who was John Cliff?

John Cliff was the first Assistant General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and later a prominent London Transport board member.

Cliff was born in Leeds in 1883, the son of Jhn Cliff and his wife Mary. He joined Leeds Corporation Transport Department on 18 July 1900 as a tram conductor and later became a tram motorman. He married Sarah Ann Scott, who was 19 years his senior, in 1906.

He joined the Amalgamated Association of Tramway and Vehicle Workers and later became the Leeds branch chairman and a member of the National Executive Council. When the National Joint Industrial Council for the Tramways Industry was established in 1919 he became Joint Secretary.

In 1922, the United Vehicle Workers, created in 1919 by amalgamation of the ATVW and the London and Provincial Union of Licensed Vehicle Workers, was one of the unions which merged to form the TGWU. Cliff was appointed National Secretary of the new union's Passenger Services' National Trade Group, overseeing members in the public transport sector throughout the country. In 1924, he became the first Assistant General Secretary of the TGWU, acting as deputy to General Secretary Ernest Bevin.