Peter Kerrigan

Peter Kerrigan (26 June 1899 – 15 December 1977) was a communist activist in Britain.

Early years Born in the Hutchesontown area of Glasgow, Kerrigan was apprenticed on the railways before serving in the Royal Scots from 1918 until 1920. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1921, but left in 1922 after the party declined to oppose Labour Party candidates in the general election.

Kerrigan rejoined the CPGB in 1924 and also became active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU), achieving particular prominence during the British General Strike. He married fellow communist Rose Klasko in 1926. He attended the Third Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions and the Fifth Congress of the Comintern and in 1927 was elected to the Executive of the CPGB.

From 1939 until 1942 Kerrigan served as the CPGB's industrial organiser, then national organiser from 1943 to 1951. He stood for Parliament at Glasgow Shettleston in 1945 and in the Glasgow Gorbals from 1948 onwards, but was unsuccessful on all occasions.

Kerrigan died in 1977 at the age of 78. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.