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'''Sir Gavin Harry Laird''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} (14 March 1933 – 26 October 2017) was a Scottish trade unionist, who became General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and a Member of the Court of the Bank of England.
Growing up in Clydebank he attended a local high school then began working for Singer.<ref name="Rogers">{{cite web |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/an-era-ends-with-the-going-of-sir-gavin-1.673673 |title=An era ends with the going of Sir Gavin |work=Herald Scotland |last=Rogers |first=Roy |date=28 June 1995 |accessdate=18 August 2014}}</ref> He became an Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) shop steward there, then convenor.<ref name="Rogers" />
Three years after taking up a full-time position with the union, he was elected to the AEU executive and later elected AEU general secretary, remaining in that position after the merger which created the AEEU.<ref name="Rogers" /> He addressed the Confederation of British Industry annual conference in 1986 – an unusual move for a trade unionist at the time.<ref name="Rogers" /> Laird held a number of other posts and directorships. He was a member of the Arts Council between 1983 and 1986.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Adeney |first=Martin |date=12 November 2017 |title=Sir Gavin Laird Obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/12/sir-gavin-laird-obituary |access-date=17 April 2024 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>
He received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1994,<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|publisher = Heriot-Watt University|title = Honorary Graduates|access-date = 4 April 2016|archive-date = 18 April 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160418163907/http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|url-status = dead}}</ref> was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) under Margaret Thatcher's government and knighted in 1995 at the behest of Tony Blair.<ref name="Rogers" />
He retired from the AEEU in 1995<ref name="Rogers" /> and died in October 2017 at the age of 84 after a long illness.<ref>[https://www.realwire.com/releases/Sir-Gavin-Laird-CBE-1933-2017 Sir Gavin Laird C.B.E. 1933-2017]</ref>
== References ==
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{{start box}} {{s-npo|union}} {{succession box|title=General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union|years=1982–1992|before=John McFarlane Boyd|after=''Position abolished''}} {{succession box|title=General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union|years=1992–1994|with=Paul Gallagher|before=''New position''|after=Paul Gallagher}} {{succession box|title=President of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions|years=1986–1987|before=Tom Crispin|after=Todd Sullivan}} {{end box}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Laird, Gavin}} Category:1933 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:General secretaries of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union Category:General secretaries of the Amalgamated Engineering Union Category:Knights Bachelor Category:People from Clydebank
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