National Union of Bookbinders and Machine Rulers and predecessors

The sources below are those of the above union, and its predecessors, identified as being of potential interest to geneaologists. If you have established a person's membership of a trade union and their period of membership, and also have the relevant information outlined below, it may be worth searching these records for further information.

Trade circulars and reports, 1848-1908 (MSS.39/SO/B/4/1/1-13)

Contain: clear members of the union

Need: Precise dates of Union membership and branch name

Contain: Obituaries (indexed)

Need: Full name of member and precise date of death

Membership register, 1917-1919 (MSS.39/SO/B/2/2/1)

Contains: Records the membership of women entering the London Branch, 1917-1919

Need: Full name of member

London Bookbinders' Sick Benefit Society

Annual reports, 1910-1954 (MSS.39/SO/B/5/1/2-42)

Contain: benefits paid to members. Deaths are annotated in the lists. After 1913, only the voluntary side benefits are listed. The lists end at 1st December 1917

Need: Name and initials of member, precise dates of sickness or death

Background Information

The National Union of Bookbinders and Machine Rulers had its origins in local societies that came together in 1835 as the Bookbinders' Consolidated Relief Fund for the relief of tramping. This developed into the Bookbinders' Consolidated Union with a network of branches throughout the United Kingdom. London maintained its own societies despite the Bookbinders' Consolidated Union establishing a branch there in 1857. In order to reflect changes in the membership, the title of the union was changed in 1872 to the Bookbinders and Machine Rulers' Consolidated Union. From the turn of the century co-operation between the London societies and the Bookbinders and Machine Rulers' Consolidated Union increased, leading to amalgamation and the National Union of Bookbinders and Machine Rulers in January 1911, modelled on the Bookbinders and Machine Rulers' Consolidated Union. The National Union of Bookbinders and Machine Rulers continued until January 1921 when it joined with the National Union of Printing and Paper Workers to form the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding, Machine Ruling and Paper Workers.

Reference: C.J. Bundock, The Story of the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers (Oxford, 1959).

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