Sidney Weighell

Sidney Weighell (31 March 1922 – 13 February 2002) was an English footballer, trade unionist and the General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen from 1975 to 1983.

Early life Weighell was born on 31 March 1922, in Northallerton, to a family of the rail industry; his father was signalman Tom Weighell, his grandfather Bill was a guard and his brother Maurice was a driver. He was educated at a Church of England school, which he left at age 15 and became an apprentice mechanic.

Railway work In 1938, he took an apprenticeship at the road motor engineering department of the London and North Eastern Railway company. He became active in the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) immediately upon starting work for the railways, believing in 'one union for all railway staff'. This brought him into conflict with the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); Weighell was a so-called 'footplate grade', traditionally represented by ASLEF, not the NUR.

In 1969, he was named as Senior AGS, becoming Sidney Greene's deputy when the need arose, and when Greene chose to retire in 1975 Weighell won the leadership election, with more votes than all three of his opponents put together, a rare occurrence in the NUR. In 1973, he became secretary of the newly formed Transport 2000. He spoke at the 1976 Labour Party Conference, along with Johnny Johnson and Ray Buckton, talking about the deep disappointment following the party's desertion of its election manifesto.

Later life After resigning in 1983 he moved back to Yorkshire and joined the British Airports Authority board, as well as acting as a consultant to Tyne Tees Television. In 1983, he wrote an autobiography titled On the Rails which was extremely scathing to both the successive and earlier General Secretaries.

Personal life On 1 September 1949, Weighell married Margaret Hunter, with whom he had one son and one daughter, Jennifer and Anthony. In 1956 Margaret and Jennifer were both killed when the family were involved in a car crash. Sidney himself spent several months in hospital, but returned to work after he had recovered. Later his only comment upon the crash was that, "Compared to it, other things didn´t seem so bad." He married a second time on 21 November 1959 to Joan Willetts, a market research interviewer, but no children resulted.