Early years

Walter Hannington, best known by his nickname "Wal," was born on 17 June 1896 in Camden Town, London. His father was a bricklayer with a large family. He himself was apprenticed to a toolmaker at 14 and joined the Toolmakers' Society during the First World War. He married his wife Winnie in 1917. He joined the British Socialist Party during this period and became a member of the Amalgamated Toolmakers' London committee. He went over to the Amalgamated Engineering Union in the 1920 merger.^[1]

Political career

In 1920 Hannington became a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. From the time of its formation in 1921 until its dissolution in 1939 Hannington was the head of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, an offshoot of the CPGB.

Hannington was a delegate to the founding conference of the National Minority Movement (NMM) in August 1924.^[2] The National Minority Movement, headed by Harry Pollitt, was a pressure group formed by the CPGB to work within the established trade union movement. With only one or two exceptions, the members of the Executive Committee of the NMM were members of the Communist Party.^[3] Wal Hannington was one of the inner circle of the executive which controlled the organization, working as a full-time leader of the section dedicated to the metal workers.^[4]

In 1925 Hannington was one of 12 members of the Communist Party convicted at the Old Bailey under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 and one of the five defendants sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

In 1936 he wrote a book about his experiences as leader of the NUWM, Unemployed Struggles 1919–1936: My Life and Struggles Amongst the Unemployed. He includes accounts of his numerous prison terms, and claims that the government had him and other members of the NUWM under surveillance.

In 1937 his book The Problem of the Distressed Areas was published by Victor Gollancz with a preface by Professor Harold Laski.

In 1939 Hannington became National Organiser of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.

Death and legacy

Wal Hannington died on 17 November 1966 at the age of 70.