13 Facts About Wal Hannington

Walter "Wal" Hannington was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Organiser of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, from its formation in 1921 to its end in 1939.

Wal Hannington's father was a bricklayer with a large family.

Wal Hannington himself was apprenticed to a toolmaker at 14 and joined the Toolmakers' Society during the First World War.

Wal Hannington joined the British Socialist Party during this period and became a member of the Amalgamated Toolmakers' London committee.

Wal Hannington went over to the Amalgamated Engineering Union in the 1920 merger.

In 1920 Hannington became a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Wal Hannington was a delegate to the founding conference of the National Minority Movement in August 1924.

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.

In 1925 Wal 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.

Wal Hannington includes accounts of his numerous prison terms, and claims that the government had him and other members of the NUWM under surveillance.

In 1942 Wal Hannington was elected National Organiser of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.

Wal Hannington held this position from January 1953 until his death.

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