Typographical Association

The Typographical Association was a British trade union.

The National Typographical Association collapsed in 1848, and delegates from across Yorkshire and Lancashire met at Angel Street in Sheffield to found the Provincial Typographical Association, intended to recreate the former Northern Typographical Union and to focus on paying benefits to members on strike. The union grew gradually from 481 members at the end of 1849 to 5,300 in 1877. In that year, it merged with a related relief association and dropped "Provincial" from its title.

Based in Manchester, the union focussed on demanding members serve a seven-year apprenticeship. In 1894, it began admitting women. In the 1910s, the Association established a branch in London, but the Trades Union Congress instituted arbitration which restricted it from a fifteen-mile radius of central London, the rival London Society of Compositors having rights to organise in the city.

In 1964, the Association merged with the London Typographical Society to create the National Graphical Association.

General Secretaries

1865: Henry Roberts

1869: Henry Slatter

1897: Richard Hackett

1900: A. Jones

1900: Herbert Skinner

1934: John Fletcher

1942: Harry Riding

1955: F. C. Blackburn

1957: John Bonfield

References

• Arthur Marsh, Victoria Ryan and John B. Smethurst, Historical Directory of Trade Unions
• Albert Edward Musson, The Typographical Association: Origins and History Up to 1949

External links

• Catalogue of the TA archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick