GCT Giles collection
TitleGCT Giles collection
ReferencePP/GILES
Date
1926-1956
Scope and ContentBOX 1 - Personal Material
Folder - Curriculum vitae Biographical notes written in 1956, the year of his retirement
Application for post of General Secretaryship, NUT, 1946
Statement of application and testimonials, including those from R.H. Tawney and P.M.S. Blackett. The file also includes a handwritten CV, which includes some details not in the 1956 CV. These especially relate to his work in the aftermath of the Great War, in which he served in disabled servicemen's resettlement for the YMCA and then worked in journalism.
Photographs Of a portrait painting
Presidential address, 1944 Copy sent to WCML by NUT Headquarters
Folder - Texts and drafts of speeches, letters and articles A variety of undated items, either typescript or handwritten; some undoubtedly relate to his year as NUT President. Interesting items include a draft of a letter to Elsie (Parker?) relating to NUT General Secretary Sir Frederick Mander's attack in The Schoolmaster in 1940 on Communist policy to support the People's Convention. Also included is the text of a speech Giles gave in the presence of R.A. Butler to the Middlesex Secondary and Technical Association.
Folder- Attacks on Giles and Communist teachers in press and Parliament Cuttings and correspondence; the main items relate to items in the Daily Mail in 1949 and an attack in 1954 in the House of Commons by John Eden, M.P.
Folder - General correspondence (1932-1956, with one item from 1968) Most of this file relates directly or indirectly to Giles' activities in the National Union of Teachers. The file does not include correspondence which belongs to other sections in this Archive - e.g. the Educational Workers League material, and correspondence relating to the various controversies which are the subject of separate sections (see below).
Although most items are letters to Giles, or copies of letters he sent, the file also contains a few examples of letters by others which came into his possession. The file is in date order and a preliminary attempt has been made to index names of correspondents.
Clusters of material relate to his Presidential year (1944/5) and his retirement (1956). Other highlights include: letters from Leah Manning (NUT official) and a Communist named Spikes, which show hostility from Mander and his allies on the NUT Executive (1932, 1935); correspondence on the People's Convention issue (1941); a very detailed letter from James Chuter Ede (R.A.Butler's deputy) to Mander (April 1942); supportive letters during the post-war witch hunts, e.g. from Lady Simon, Edward Short and James Chuter Ede (1952, 1954, 1955).
Diary (24 Apr-14 Sep 1944)
BOX 2 - Teachers Labour League/Educational Workers League
Folder - Constitutions (1926 + 2 versions post Oct. 1930)
National Reports (1920, 1933) /Accounts (1925/6, 1933)
Annual Conferences (4th, 1925, agenda); (5th, 1926, agenda, minutes); (6th, 1928, agenda); (1931, draft resolution on plan of work); (1934, agenda)
Leaflet series/ other publicity material
Includes: Leaflet 1, 'Is the teachers work a failure?'; Leaflet 3/26, 'Broken pledges'; Messages to National Union of Women Teachers, Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters, National Union of Teachers; Reprints from 'Educational Worker'.
Correspondence on EWL matters (1930-1933)
Correspondents include David Capper on the journal, 'Educational Worker' (1930) and Owen Morgan on EWL aims and organizational structure (1932).
Links with other organizations are demonstrated in correspondence with R. Bridgeman (League against Imperialism) (1931); J.A.Mahon (National Minority Movement) (1931); and Ben Vincent (Teachers Anti-War Movement) particularly in a January 1933 letter notable for its attack on the Comintern.
Press and Publications Committee minutes and other material (1929-1931)
Handwritten minutes by Giles as Hon.Sec. Also includes annual report, 1931/2.
Communist Party fraction material (1931-2)
Giles' handwritten minutes. Also includes texts of resolutions, and correspondence with CPGB HQ, some of which shows evidence of friction.
Other material
Unsorted. Includes minutes; a paper on disaffiliation by the Labour Party; draft resolutions; speakers notes; material relating to a commission on the 'Educational Worker' journal.
Folder - Branch material
Leaflets and correspondence relating mainly to branches in the London area, South Wales, and North West England - the latter including correspondence with Ben Ainley.
Membership lists and statistics
Includes details of unattached members.
BOX 3 - Controversies
Folder - Tenure campaigns of National Union of Teachers and Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters (1935-9)
The centrepiece of this collection is correspondence between Giles and Henry Shelton, an IAAM activist and author of 'Thoughts of a Schoolmaster' (1937). They were both members of the Middlesex Secondary Association, and their aim was to campaign for a joint NUT/IAAM approach to security of tenure. Also included are copies of correspondence between Shelton and the NUT solicitor;an IAAM Memorandum on tenure to the Incorporated Association of Head Masters (1935); a report of an NUT deputation to the Board of Education (1936); minutes of NUT internal discussions; details of some specific tenure cases.
Folder - Speech at National Association of Labour Teachers meeting, Sheffield, April 13th, 1940: 'Parents: join the teachers in a protest meeting: must our childrens' education be sacrificed?'
Correspondence and other material relating to the furore arising from this meeting at which Giles was one speaker (together with the President of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council, and a representative of the National Association of Schoolmasters). The mistaken impression was given on the bill that Giles was speaking on behalf of the NUT executive. This would have been in defiance of NUT policy not to share a platform with the NAS, and the Sheffield NUT attacked Giles partly on this ground. More dangerously, it was suggested in the local press that Giles had advocated 'Soviet control of schools' through joint meetings of teachers and parents. Giles vehemently denied this and pointed out he had left the meeting early, having taken no part in the decisions coming out of the meeting. Despite this, Giles was attacked in articles and correspondence in 'The Schoolmaster' and was sufficiently worried about his own security of tenure to consult the Chairman of the NUT Tenure Committee, who was strongly supportive.
Dispute with J.Bristow, Secretary, Bucks County Teachers Association, 1941-2
Giles threatened legal action for a remark allegedly made by Bristow at a BCTA meeting to the effect that Giles was "nearly sent to prison for what [he] did in Sheffield some time ago". Bristow denied making it and denied any intention to harm Giles, who was standing for the Vice Presidency at the time.
BOX 4 - Controversies (cont)
Folder - Speech to Dorset County Association of Teachers, 24th June 1944
A collection of letters and cuttings giving insight into a controversy during Giles' year as NUT President. Having visited a large number of schools in the preceding days, Giles attacked the physical conditions of many schools, especially in rural areas. Some lacked water and sewerage and were "fit only for the scrap heap". The speech upset the Chairman of Dorset Education Committee, a local M.P., and local clergy. It attracted support from the 'Dorset County Chronicle', and tacitly from the progressively minded Director of Education, J.L.Longland, who commented in a private letter that "these jars and jolts are very salutary provided they are administered by someone other than myself".
Folder - Telegram of Acton County School staff in support of striking French teachers, 1947-8
This telegram, amounting to nothing more than a general statement of support, was sent by 16 staff to the Confederation Generale de Travail on Dec 4th 1947. In the context of mounting attacks on Communists, it was seized upon by Giles' opponents on the Acton Education Committee and in the Old Actonians Association, who raised the spectre of 'Communist indoctrination' in the school, and roused the interest of the Daily Mail and the Daily Graphic. Giles feared for his tenure, but on this occasion the Education Committee voted down a hostile motion, and the Association refused to accept what was seen as an unconstitutional 'political' agenda item.
Folder - NUT Executive elections, 1948 and 1949
A collection which shows mounting attacks upon Communist influence in the NUT. It includes copies of articles in 'Teachers World' in March and April 1948, which were part of what seems to have been a largely successful campaign to get candidates for office to declare whether or not they were members of the Communist Party. In 1948 this successfully scuppered John Mansfield's attempt on the Vice-Presidency, and reduced Giles' vote for the Executive.
In October 1948 the attack was renewed through what was later acknowledged to have been a fabrication - a widely circulated leaflet issued on behalf of the 'Young Communist Action Group', which turned out to be a fictitious body with no genuine connection with either the Communist Party or the Young Communist League. The leaflet demonstrated to the electors how to use the PR system to get the five Communist candidates elected. Its effect, as intended, was the reverse - Giles lost his place in 1949 and did not regain it until 1952.
The Communists, supported by a number of other members, pressed for an enquiry, and eventually got it. Those engaged in the enquiry included the General Secretary, Ronald Gould, and the NUT solicitor. Their report is in the collection; they failed to trace the source of the hoax. In his autobiography Gould claimed that he thought he knew who had perpetrated it but could not prove it. ('Chalk up the memory', 1976, pp. 123-5).
The Collection contains some accompanying material relating to the activities of Conservative and Roman Catholic teachers during the 1949 election. It also contains a copy of a further Teachers World article (9th March 1949) highlighting plans of the London District Communist Party, and the alleged strength of their influence in the London Teachers Association.
Folder - Middlesex Ban and related tenure problems, 1950-6
In October 1950 Middlesex County Council refused to endorse the appointment of R.P. Neal to the Headship of Bounds Green School, and then imposed a blanket ban on the appointment of Communists or Fascists to Headships. This file contains material from the N.U.T. and I.A.A.M. and from Middlesex County Teachers Association and Acton Teachers Association.
The leading opponent of the Communists was the Chairman of the Education Committee, Alderman Hoare, a supporter of the anti-Communist campaigning group, 'Common Cause' By implication he accused Giles of Communist indoctrination in the school. Common Cause set up a Teachers Committee, which held a stormy public meeting in 1953, recorded in this archive.
The dispute dragged on for years. Union blacklisting of posts proved ineffective, and the N.U.T. failed to get a majority of Middlesex staff in 1956 to vote for a strike. It required a change of political control on Middlesex Council to reverse the ban. (See R.V. Seifert, Teacher militancy, 1987, pp67-9) The file also contains material on other tenure issues, including Durham County Council's attempt to make trade union membership compulsory (which all the unions opposed), and Bury Council's ban on conscientious objectors.
BOX 5 - Other Organisations
Folder - National Union of Teachers, Middlesex County Association of Teachers and other NUT branch material
A small heterogeneous file. Includes material on the attempts of Giles and others to propose NUT affiliation to the TUC in 1943, including the text of an exchange between Sir Frederick Mander and Sir Walter Citrine..
Folder - Organisations supporting German and Spanish teachers (1934-1937)
Organisations represented include the British Committee for the Relief of German Teachers (Giles was on the National Committee), the International Committee for the Relief of German Teachers, and International Committee for the Relief of Victimised Teachers (material dealing with Spain). Some correspondence is included in this file.
Folder - Other organisations
Small amounts of material from other organisations in which Giles had an interest. Perhaps the most significant are the National Young Teachers Movement (1931) and the Teachers Unity Movement (1933)
Folder - Curriculum vitae Biographical notes written in 1956, the year of his retirement
Application for post of General Secretaryship, NUT, 1946
Statement of application and testimonials, including those from R.H. Tawney and P.M.S. Blackett. The file also includes a handwritten CV, which includes some details not in the 1956 CV. These especially relate to his work in the aftermath of the Great War, in which he served in disabled servicemen's resettlement for the YMCA and then worked in journalism.
Photographs Of a portrait painting
Presidential address, 1944 Copy sent to WCML by NUT Headquarters
Folder - Texts and drafts of speeches, letters and articles A variety of undated items, either typescript or handwritten; some undoubtedly relate to his year as NUT President. Interesting items include a draft of a letter to Elsie (Parker?) relating to NUT General Secretary Sir Frederick Mander's attack in The Schoolmaster in 1940 on Communist policy to support the People's Convention. Also included is the text of a speech Giles gave in the presence of R.A. Butler to the Middlesex Secondary and Technical Association.
Folder- Attacks on Giles and Communist teachers in press and Parliament Cuttings and correspondence; the main items relate to items in the Daily Mail in 1949 and an attack in 1954 in the House of Commons by John Eden, M.P.
Folder - General correspondence (1932-1956, with one item from 1968) Most of this file relates directly or indirectly to Giles' activities in the National Union of Teachers. The file does not include correspondence which belongs to other sections in this Archive - e.g. the Educational Workers League material, and correspondence relating to the various controversies which are the subject of separate sections (see below).
Although most items are letters to Giles, or copies of letters he sent, the file also contains a few examples of letters by others which came into his possession. The file is in date order and a preliminary attempt has been made to index names of correspondents.
Clusters of material relate to his Presidential year (1944/5) and his retirement (1956). Other highlights include: letters from Leah Manning (NUT official) and a Communist named Spikes, which show hostility from Mander and his allies on the NUT Executive (1932, 1935); correspondence on the People's Convention issue (1941); a very detailed letter from James Chuter Ede (R.A.Butler's deputy) to Mander (April 1942); supportive letters during the post-war witch hunts, e.g. from Lady Simon, Edward Short and James Chuter Ede (1952, 1954, 1955).
Diary (24 Apr-14 Sep 1944)
BOX 2 - Teachers Labour League/Educational Workers League
Folder - Constitutions (1926 + 2 versions post Oct. 1930)
National Reports (1920, 1933) /Accounts (1925/6, 1933)
Annual Conferences (4th, 1925, agenda); (5th, 1926, agenda, minutes); (6th, 1928, agenda); (1931, draft resolution on plan of work); (1934, agenda)
Leaflet series/ other publicity material
Includes: Leaflet 1, 'Is the teachers work a failure?'; Leaflet 3/26, 'Broken pledges'; Messages to National Union of Women Teachers, Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters, National Union of Teachers; Reprints from 'Educational Worker'.
Correspondence on EWL matters (1930-1933)
Correspondents include David Capper on the journal, 'Educational Worker' (1930) and Owen Morgan on EWL aims and organizational structure (1932).
Links with other organizations are demonstrated in correspondence with R. Bridgeman (League against Imperialism) (1931); J.A.Mahon (National Minority Movement) (1931); and Ben Vincent (Teachers Anti-War Movement) particularly in a January 1933 letter notable for its attack on the Comintern.
Press and Publications Committee minutes and other material (1929-1931)
Handwritten minutes by Giles as Hon.Sec. Also includes annual report, 1931/2.
Communist Party fraction material (1931-2)
Giles' handwritten minutes. Also includes texts of resolutions, and correspondence with CPGB HQ, some of which shows evidence of friction.
Other material
Unsorted. Includes minutes; a paper on disaffiliation by the Labour Party; draft resolutions; speakers notes; material relating to a commission on the 'Educational Worker' journal.
Folder - Branch material
Leaflets and correspondence relating mainly to branches in the London area, South Wales, and North West England - the latter including correspondence with Ben Ainley.
Membership lists and statistics
Includes details of unattached members.
BOX 3 - Controversies
Folder - Tenure campaigns of National Union of Teachers and Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters (1935-9)
The centrepiece of this collection is correspondence between Giles and Henry Shelton, an IAAM activist and author of 'Thoughts of a Schoolmaster' (1937). They were both members of the Middlesex Secondary Association, and their aim was to campaign for a joint NUT/IAAM approach to security of tenure. Also included are copies of correspondence between Shelton and the NUT solicitor;an IAAM Memorandum on tenure to the Incorporated Association of Head Masters (1935); a report of an NUT deputation to the Board of Education (1936); minutes of NUT internal discussions; details of some specific tenure cases.
Folder - Speech at National Association of Labour Teachers meeting, Sheffield, April 13th, 1940: 'Parents: join the teachers in a protest meeting: must our childrens' education be sacrificed?'
Correspondence and other material relating to the furore arising from this meeting at which Giles was one speaker (together with the President of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council, and a representative of the National Association of Schoolmasters). The mistaken impression was given on the bill that Giles was speaking on behalf of the NUT executive. This would have been in defiance of NUT policy not to share a platform with the NAS, and the Sheffield NUT attacked Giles partly on this ground. More dangerously, it was suggested in the local press that Giles had advocated 'Soviet control of schools' through joint meetings of teachers and parents. Giles vehemently denied this and pointed out he had left the meeting early, having taken no part in the decisions coming out of the meeting. Despite this, Giles was attacked in articles and correspondence in 'The Schoolmaster' and was sufficiently worried about his own security of tenure to consult the Chairman of the NUT Tenure Committee, who was strongly supportive.
Dispute with J.Bristow, Secretary, Bucks County Teachers Association, 1941-2
Giles threatened legal action for a remark allegedly made by Bristow at a BCTA meeting to the effect that Giles was "nearly sent to prison for what [he] did in Sheffield some time ago". Bristow denied making it and denied any intention to harm Giles, who was standing for the Vice Presidency at the time.
BOX 4 - Controversies (cont)
Folder - Speech to Dorset County Association of Teachers, 24th June 1944
A collection of letters and cuttings giving insight into a controversy during Giles' year as NUT President. Having visited a large number of schools in the preceding days, Giles attacked the physical conditions of many schools, especially in rural areas. Some lacked water and sewerage and were "fit only for the scrap heap". The speech upset the Chairman of Dorset Education Committee, a local M.P., and local clergy. It attracted support from the 'Dorset County Chronicle', and tacitly from the progressively minded Director of Education, J.L.Longland, who commented in a private letter that "these jars and jolts are very salutary provided they are administered by someone other than myself".
Folder - Telegram of Acton County School staff in support of striking French teachers, 1947-8
This telegram, amounting to nothing more than a general statement of support, was sent by 16 staff to the Confederation Generale de Travail on Dec 4th 1947. In the context of mounting attacks on Communists, it was seized upon by Giles' opponents on the Acton Education Committee and in the Old Actonians Association, who raised the spectre of 'Communist indoctrination' in the school, and roused the interest of the Daily Mail and the Daily Graphic. Giles feared for his tenure, but on this occasion the Education Committee voted down a hostile motion, and the Association refused to accept what was seen as an unconstitutional 'political' agenda item.
Folder - NUT Executive elections, 1948 and 1949
A collection which shows mounting attacks upon Communist influence in the NUT. It includes copies of articles in 'Teachers World' in March and April 1948, which were part of what seems to have been a largely successful campaign to get candidates for office to declare whether or not they were members of the Communist Party. In 1948 this successfully scuppered John Mansfield's attempt on the Vice-Presidency, and reduced Giles' vote for the Executive.
In October 1948 the attack was renewed through what was later acknowledged to have been a fabrication - a widely circulated leaflet issued on behalf of the 'Young Communist Action Group', which turned out to be a fictitious body with no genuine connection with either the Communist Party or the Young Communist League. The leaflet demonstrated to the electors how to use the PR system to get the five Communist candidates elected. Its effect, as intended, was the reverse - Giles lost his place in 1949 and did not regain it until 1952.
The Communists, supported by a number of other members, pressed for an enquiry, and eventually got it. Those engaged in the enquiry included the General Secretary, Ronald Gould, and the NUT solicitor. Their report is in the collection; they failed to trace the source of the hoax. In his autobiography Gould claimed that he thought he knew who had perpetrated it but could not prove it. ('Chalk up the memory', 1976, pp. 123-5).
The Collection contains some accompanying material relating to the activities of Conservative and Roman Catholic teachers during the 1949 election. It also contains a copy of a further Teachers World article (9th March 1949) highlighting plans of the London District Communist Party, and the alleged strength of their influence in the London Teachers Association.
Folder - Middlesex Ban and related tenure problems, 1950-6
In October 1950 Middlesex County Council refused to endorse the appointment of R.P. Neal to the Headship of Bounds Green School, and then imposed a blanket ban on the appointment of Communists or Fascists to Headships. This file contains material from the N.U.T. and I.A.A.M. and from Middlesex County Teachers Association and Acton Teachers Association.
The leading opponent of the Communists was the Chairman of the Education Committee, Alderman Hoare, a supporter of the anti-Communist campaigning group, 'Common Cause' By implication he accused Giles of Communist indoctrination in the school. Common Cause set up a Teachers Committee, which held a stormy public meeting in 1953, recorded in this archive.
The dispute dragged on for years. Union blacklisting of posts proved ineffective, and the N.U.T. failed to get a majority of Middlesex staff in 1956 to vote for a strike. It required a change of political control on Middlesex Council to reverse the ban. (See R.V. Seifert, Teacher militancy, 1987, pp67-9) The file also contains material on other tenure issues, including Durham County Council's attempt to make trade union membership compulsory (which all the unions opposed), and Bury Council's ban on conscientious objectors.
BOX 5 - Other Organisations
Folder - National Union of Teachers, Middlesex County Association of Teachers and other NUT branch material
A small heterogeneous file. Includes material on the attempts of Giles and others to propose NUT affiliation to the TUC in 1943, including the text of an exchange between Sir Frederick Mander and Sir Walter Citrine..
Folder - Organisations supporting German and Spanish teachers (1934-1937)
Organisations represented include the British Committee for the Relief of German Teachers (Giles was on the National Committee), the International Committee for the Relief of German Teachers, and International Committee for the Relief of Victimised Teachers (material dealing with Spain). Some correspondence is included in this file.
Folder - Other organisations
Small amounts of material from other organisations in which Giles had an interest. Perhaps the most significant are the National Young Teachers Movement (1931) and the Teachers Unity Movement (1933)
Extent5 boxes
Related object
Persons keywordNational Union of Teachers
Levelfonds
Normal locationAG Giles, GTC (Room 36)