William Westwood, 1st Baron Westwood

Who was William Westwood, 1st Baron Westwood?

William Westwood, 1st Baron Westwood OBE, was a British trade unionist and Labour politician.

Westwood was the son of William Westwood of Dundee, Scotland. He was National Supervisor of the Ship Constructors' and Shipwrights' Association from 1913 to 1929 and its General Secretary from 1929 to 1945 as well as Chief Industrial Adviser from 1942 to 1945. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1920. On 29 January 1944 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Westwood, of Gosforth in the County of Northumberland. He then served in the Labour government of Clement Attlee as a Lord-in-Waiting between 1945 and 1947 and was also Chairman of the Mineral Development Committee under the Ministry of Fuel and Power from 1946 to 1949.

Lord Westwood married firstly Margaret, daughter of William Young, in 1905. After her death in 1916 he married secondly Agnes Helen, daughter of James Downie, in 1918. She died in 1952. Lord Westwood survived her by a year and died in September 1953, aged 73. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son from his first marriage, William.