| Lord Morris of Handsworth |
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 Lord Morris of Handsworth was born in Bombay Jamaica, in the parish of Manchester. His early ambitions were to play cricket for the West Indies and his cricket often got in the way of his studies. In 1954, he joined his recently widowed mother in the UK who was living in the Handsworth area of Birmingham. He started work straight away at the Birmingham Engineering company and it was here, some four years later that he joined the Transport and General Workers Trade Union (TGWU). While at the engineering company Sir Bill attended a day release course at the Handsworth Technical College. His first ‘official’ negotiation was to ask for protective clothing for workers where he worked at Hardy Spicers. He was successful and he was later elected as Shop Steward. This was to be the start of this career in Trade unionism. He was later involved in his first major industrial dispute about Trade Union recognition. He became a full- time official in the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) in 1973 having been involved in local negotiations through the Birmingham Trades Council and studying the history of the movement at the central library in Birmingham. Six years later, Lord Morris was responsible for leading national negotiations in the bus and coach industries. He became Deputy General Secretary in 1986 and in 1991 he was elected General Secretary of the T&G, and became the first Black General Secretary of a trade union. He was re-elected by popular demand to serve a second term at the helm of the organisation where, amongst other things, he campaigned vigorously for the minimum wage. This is something he is very proud of. Now ‘retired’ Lord Morris is as busy as ever and amongst other things is Chair of the Morris Inquiry – a public study for the Metropolitan Police of their professional standards, Chancellor of Stafford University and the University of Technology, Jamaica. He is also involved supporting a number of community organisations particularly in Birmingham. Lord Morris received a knighthood in the 2003 Queen’s birthday honours list. In June 2006, Lord Morris took a seat in the House of Lords. He was awarded the order of Jamaica 2002, an award he particularly cherishes as it is from his country of birth. |
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