Vic Feather Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Feather
Office:President of the European Trade Union Confederation
Term Start:1973
Term End:1974
Predecessor:Heinz Oskar Vetter
Successor:Heinz Oskar Vetter
Office2:General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress
Term Start2:26 February 1969
Term End2:7 September 19731
Predecessor2:George Woodcock
Successor2:Len Murray
Office3:Assistant General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress
Term Start3:1960
Term End3:1969
1Namedata3:George Woodcock
Predecessor3:George Woodcock
Successor3:Len Murray
Birth Place:Idle, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Footnotes:1 Acting from 26 February 1969 to 2 September 1969

Victor Grayson Hardie Feather, Baron Feather, (10 April 1908  - 28 July 1976) was a British trades unionist and General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress in Great Britain from 1969 to 1973.

Early life and career

Feather was born in Idle, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1908, and was named after the recently elected socialist MP Victor Grayson. He was educated at Hanson Grammar School in Bradford. He began work at age 14 and joined the Shopworkers' Union. He was elected shop steward at age 15, and chairman of his branch committee at age 21. In the 1920’s he worked for Frank Betts (father of future Labour UK Employment Secretary Barbara Castle MP) as a journalist and cartoonist for ‘The Bradford Pioneer’.