Citrine, Walter McLennan Citrine, 1st Baron [key], 1887–1983, English trade union leader. An electrician, he became district secretary of the electrical trade union in 1914 and rose to be general secretary of the Trades Union Congress in 1926, president of the International Federation of Trades Unions in 1928, and president of the World Trade Union Conference in 1945. A skillful organizer, he led the conservative wing in labor and became powerful in the Labour government of Clement Attlee. He was created baron in 1946 and was chairman of the Central Electricity Authority (1947–57). His writings include My Finnish Diary (1940), In Russia Now (1942), and British Trade Unions (1942).
See his autobiography, Two Careers (1967).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Labor: Biographies
