{{Short description|British trade union official}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Alec Sandy Firth''' (1892 – date of death unknown) was a British trade union official.

Born in London, Firth attended Shelley Elementary School, then won scholarships to Penistone Grammar School, followed by Huddersfield Technical College. He won the Martin Fisher Travelling Scholarship in 1915, but due to the outbreak of World War I, he instead completed a degree in economics with the University of London External Programme, and became an assistant lecturer at the Huddersfield Technical College. He briefly served in the Royal Navy, but was discharged for medical reasons.<ref name="griggs">{{cite book |last1=Griggs |first1=Clive |title=The TUC and Education Reform, 1926-1970 |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134723942 |pages=5–6}}</ref>

Firth found work as the deputy statistical officer at the Department of Wool Textile Production in the War Office, then as secretary of a company of wool brokers, before moving to the Board of Trade, serving in its Profiteering Act Department.<ref name="whoswho">{{cite book |title=The Labour Who's Who |date=1927 |publisher=Labour Publishing Company |page=68}}</ref>

A supporter of the Labour Party, Firth was asked to stand in Penistone at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, but was unable to, as he was a civil servant. He began working as education officer of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1921, during this period standing unsuccessfully in Cambridge at the 1922, 1923 and 1924 United Kingdom general elections. In 1923, he became an Assistant General Secretary of the TUC.<ref name="whoswho" />

In 1931, Firth became secretary of the Workers' Educational Association; he resigned in 1934, due to poor health.<ref>{{cite web |title=Workers' Educational Association archive |url=https://student.londonmet.ac.uk/media/london-metropolitan-university/london-met-documents/professional-service-departments/library-services/tuc-library-collections/archives/Workers-Educational-Association-Library.pdf |website=London Metropolitan University |accessdate=25 March 2019}}</ref>

==References== <references />

{{start box}} {{s-npo|union}} {{succession box|title=Secretary of the Education Department of the Trades Union Congress|years=1921–1931|before=''New position''|after=Jack Wray}} {{succession box|title=Assistant General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress|years=1923–1931|with=Walter Citrine (1924–1925)|before=Fred Bramley|after=Vincent Tewson}} {{s-npo}} {{succession box|title=General Secretary of the Workers' Educational Association|years=1931–1934|before=John William Muir|after=Ernest Green}} {{end box}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firth, Alec}} Category:1892 births Category:Year of death missing Category:Academics of the University of Huddersfield Category:Alumni of the University of Huddersfield Category:Alumni of University of London Worldwide Category:Royal Navy personnel of World War I Category:Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Category:People educated at Penistone Grammar School Category:Trade unionists from London Category:Workers' Educational Association Category:20th-century British trade unionists