Tom Burlison - Misplaced Pages

Association football career
Senior career*
Position(s)	Wing-half
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1954–1957	Lincoln City	0	(0)
1957–1964	Hartlepool United	148	(5)
1964–1965	Darlington	26	(2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:48, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Thomas Henry Burlison, Baron Burlison, DL (23 May 1936 – 20 May 2008) was a British footballer, GMB trade unionist and Treasurer of the Labour Party. He was the first former professional footballer to take a seat in the House of Lords.

Burlison was born in Edmondsley, County Durham, the son of a miner, Robert Burlison, and his wife, Georgina. He was educated in Edmondsley and worked as a panel beater from 1951 to 1957, joining the General and Municipal Workers' Union (GMWU, later merged to form the GMB).

Professional football

He was a professional footballer from 1953 to 1965 (playing for Lincoln City, Hartlepool United and Darlington). Between 1959 and 1961 he did National Service in the Royal Air Force.

GMWU/GMB trade union

He became a regional officer of the GMB in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1965, and regional secretary in 1978. A polite and unassuming man with a low profile, he was an effective "fixer" behind the scenes, drawing from a base in the union's heartland in the northeast and setting many on the path to power. His staff included former Labour ministers Nick Brown and Doug Henderson, and former MEP and Labour leader in the European parliament Alan Donnelly. He was also involved in the selection of many Labour MPs, including Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson.

He was involved in the negotiations in 1982 to merge the GMWU with the Boilermakers to form the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union. He was runner-up behind John Edmonds in the election for general secretary of the GMB in 1985. The GMB merged with APEX in 1989 for form the GMB Union, and Burlison served as deputy general secretary of the merged union from 1991 to 1996.

Labour Party

He was also treasurer of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1996. He was chairman of the TUC northern region for nine years. He was also a trustee of the Board of Governors of the University of Northumbria, a Deputy Lieutenant and Honorary President of Hartlepool United. He was an important moderniser on Labour's National Executive Committee in the years before the party's landslide victory at the 1997 general election.

Baron Burlison

On 21 October 1997, he was created a life peer as Baron Burlison, of Rowlands Gill, in the County of Tyne and Wear. He was a working peer, and was a Lord in Waiting (a Government whip in the House of Lords) from 1999 to 2001.

Burlison married Valerie Stephenson in 1981. They had one son and one daughter.

Burlison lived in Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear, for at least 20 years. He died in Gateshead on 20 May 2008 at the age of 71.

References

"No. 54930". The London Gazette. 27 October 1997. p. 12047.
"Footballer turned peer dies at 71". BBC Sport. 21 May 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2008.

"DodOnline". Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
Obituary: The Independent, 23 May 2008
Obituary: The Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2008
Obituary: The Guardian, 11 June 2008
Obituary: The Times, 20 June 2008

Trade union offices
Preceded byAndrew Cunningham	Northern District Secretary of the GMB 1978–1991	Succeeded byNick Anderson
Preceded byNew position	Deputy General Secretary of the GMB 1991–1996	Succeeded bySteve Pickering
Political offices
Preceded bySam McCluskie	Treasurer of the Labour Party 1992–1996	Succeeded byMargaret Prosser

Labour Party

History

Main

History of the Labour Party

Topics

Leadership

Leaders	Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Morrison^ Gaitskell Brown^ Wilson Callaghan Foot Kinnock Smith Beckett^ Blair Brown Harman^ Miliband Harman^ Corbyn Starmer
Deputy Leaders	Clynes Graham Attlee Greenwood Morrison Griffiths Bevan Brown Jenkins Short Foot Healey Hattersley Beckett Prescott Harman Watson Rayner
General Secretaries	MacDonald Henderson Middleton Phillips Williams Barker^ Nicholas Hayward Mortimer Whitty Sawyer McDonagh Triesman Carter Watt Collins McNicol Formby Evans
Treasurers	Henderson MacDonald Henderson Lathan Greenwood Gaitskell Bevan Nicholas Davies Callaghan Atkinson Varley Booth McCluskie Burlison Prosser Elsby Dromey Holland
Leaders in the Lords	Haldane Cripps Ponsonby Snell Addison Jowitt Alexander Pakenham Shackleton Shepherd Peart Hughes Richard Jay Williams Amos Ashton Royall Smith of Basildon
Scottish Labour Leaders	Dewar McLeish Jamieson^ McConnell Jamieson^ Alexander Jamieson^ Gray Lamont Sarwar^ Murphy Gray^ Dugdale Rowley^ Baillie^ Leonard Baillie^ Sarwar
PLP Chairs	Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Hodge* Wardle* Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Lees-Smith* Pethick-Lawrence* Greenwood* Gaitskell Wilson Houghton Mikardo Hughes Willey Dormand Orme Hoyle Soley Corston Clwyd Lloyd Watts Cryer Morden
EPLP Leaders	Stewart Prescott Castle Lomas Martin Seal Ford Green David Donnelly Murphy Titley Willmott Corbett
* = wartime, in opposition ^ Interim/Acting

Internal elections and selections

Leadership elections	1922 Ramsay MacDonald 1931 Arthur Henderson 1932 George Lansbury 1935 Clement Attlee 1955 Hugh Gaitskell 1960 1961 1963 Harold Wilson 1976 James Callaghan 1980 Michael Foot 1983 Neil Kinnock 1988 1992 John Smith 1994 Tony Blair 2007 Gordon Brown 2010 Ed Miliband 2015 Jeremy Corbyn 2016 2020 Keir Starmer
Deputy Leadership elections	1952 Herbert Morrison 1953 1956 Jim Griffiths 1959 Aneurin Bevan 1960 George Brown 1961 1962 1970 Roy Jenkins 1971 1972 Edward Short 1976 Michael Foot 1980 Denis Healey 1981 1983 Roy Hattersley 1988 1992 Margaret Beckett 1994 John Prescott 2007 Harriet Harman 2015 Tom Watson 2020 Angela Rayner
Shadow Cabinet elections and reshuffles	Sep 1931 (Henderson) Nov 1931 1932 (Lansbury) 1933 1934 1935 (Attlee) 1936 1937 1938 1939 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 (Gaitskell) 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 (Wilson) 1970 1971 1972 1973 1979 (Callaghan) 1980 (Foot) 1981 1982 1983 (Kinnock) 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 (Smith) 1993 1994 (Blair) 1995 1996 2010 (Miliband) June 2016 (Corbyn) May 2021 (Starmer) November 2021 2023

Party structure

Constitution	Clause IV
Executive	National Executive Committee General Secretary Treasurer
Parliamentary	Parliamentary Labour Party Chief Whip of the Labour Party
Conference	Labour Party Conference
Subnational	Scottish Labour Welsh Labour Labour Party in Northern Ireland
Directly elected city mayoral authorities	London Labour
CLPs	Constituency Labour Party Labour International
Miscellaneous	National Policy Forum Affiliated trade unions Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation Labour Co-operative Co-operative Party Labour – Federation of Labour Groups

Associated organisations

List	Organisations associated with the Labour Party
Sectional groups	Young Labour Labour International LGBT+ Labour Labour Campaign for Trans Rights Labour Students BAME Labour Disability Labour
Factional groups	Blue Labour Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Christians on the Left Compass Fabian Society Young Fabians Future Britain Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance Jewish Labour Movement Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform Labour CND Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East Labour Growth Group Labour Party Irish Society Labour Representation Committee (2004) Labour Women's Network Momentum Open Labour National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs Progressive Britain Revolutionary Communist Party Formerly Socialist Appeal Socialist Health Association Socialist Educational Association Socialist Environment and Resources Association Socialist Campaign Group Socialist Youth Network Socialist societies
Media publications	LabourList Tribune

Party alliances

Current	Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Progressive Alliance Socialist International

v t e GMB
General Secretaries	1924: Will Thorne 1934: Charles Dukes 1946: Tom Williamson 1962: Jack Cooper 1973: David Basnett 1986: John Edmonds 2003: Kevin Curran 2005: Paul Kenny 2016: Tim Roache 2021: Gary Smith
Deputy and Assistant General Secretaries	1924: Peter Tevenan and Ralph Spence 1933: Ralph Spence 1935: Abolished 1991: Tom Burlison 1996: Steve Pickering 2003: Debbie Coulter 2008: Vacant
Presidents	1924: J. R. Clynes 1938: Fred Marshall 1946: T. W. Kerry 1949: William E. Hopkin 1952: Jack Cooper 1962: Bernard Swindell 1964: Charles Smith 1970: Alex M. Donnet 1976: Derek Gladwin 1982: Dick Pickering 1987: James Morrell 1988: Olga Mean 1992: Dick Pickering 1996: Mary Turner 2018: Barbara Plant
Forerunners	Municipal Employees' Association National Amalgamated Union of Labour National Union of General Workers
Other topics	Uber BV v Aslam GMB National College

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