Description

Admin History:

The National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers was established as the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers and Small Holders Union, in Norfolk on 20 July 1906. In 1910, it changed its name to the National Agricultural Labourers' and Rural Workers' Union and began to accept, in addition to farm workers, carters, gardeners, roadmen, navvies and women. By 1920 the union had over 100 000 members and changed its name again, to the National Union of Agricultural Workers. A strike organised by the union in 1923 helped reduce the pressure to cut agricultural workers' wages. By the end of the Second World War, the union boasted 3252 branches. In 1968, the union was renamed the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers and in 1982 it amalgamated with the Transport and General Workers' Union to form the Agricultural and Allied Workers' Trade Group.

Frank Robinson began working on farms in 1914 aged 10 and became a member of the National Union of Agricultural and Rural Workers in 1918. He later joined the East Yorkshire Regiment, serving in Egypt and Indo-China (now known as Mainland Southeast Asia), before being invalided out in 1930. He returned to farm work and became Secretary of the Patrington Branch of the National Union of Agricultural Workers (NUAW). In 1935 he took over a coal business and a small-holding. When war was declared, he was appointed to the East Riding agricultural executive committee and in 1942 he was elected to the union's national executive committee in London. In 1957 he went as a governor advisor with the UK delegation to the Food and Agricultural Organisation conference in Rome. Ill-health forced him to retire from the NUAW in 1970 after 28 years of continuous service. For 18 years he was a member of the Agricultural Wages Board in London. He also served as a member of the Holderness District Council and as the chairman from 1970 to 1972.

Description:

This collection contains handwritten minute books of the Aslackby, Driffield, Langtoft and Patrington branches of the National Union of Agricultural Workers (NUAW); financial records relating to membership of the NUAW including Langtoft Branch Contribution Registers (1978-1990), members' contribution cards and a receipt book relating to strike pay during the East Riding Wages Dispute (1922), and subject files relating to agricultural wages, the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act (1924), Agricultural Wages Committees and other agricultural issues. There is also a file of press cuttings relating to Frank Robinson and his work with both the NUAW and other agricultural organisations and a bundle of photographs of various trade union banners.