George Gibson (trade unionist)

George Gibson CH (3 April 1885 – 4 February 1953) was a British mental hospital attendant, trade unionist and public servant who was General Secretary of the National Asylum Workers' Union, later renamed the Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers' Union, from 1913 to 1947, then of the Confederation of Health Service Employees, into which the previous union merged, from 1947 to 1948. He was ruined through his largely innocent association with the fraudster Sidney Stanley, which was exposed by the Lynskey Tribunal in 1948.

Gibson was born in Calton, a suburb of Glasgow, the son of Irish-born Johnston Gibson, a drysalter (maker of vinegar and castor oil) who later successively owned a fish and chip shop, a fish shop and a newsagent. Gibson's mother, Mary, was Scottish. Although he was a good scholar, Gibson left school at the age of eleven and held a variety of jobs before moving to England in 1910 to become an attendant at Winwick Asylum in Warrington.

On 10 July 1910 he became one of the co-founders of the National Asylum Workers' Union and was elected its first Secretary. He became Vice-President in 1911 and Assistant Organising Secretary in 1912. In 1913 he became full-time General Secretary. The union was renamed the Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers' Union in 1930 and amalgamated with others to form the Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) in 1947. Gibson remained General Secretary throughout these changes, but resigned in 1948. He was elected to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress in 1928 and remained a member until his retirement in 1948. He chaired the General Council and was President of the TUC from 1940 to 1941.

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