Tom Driver

Tom Driver (9 September 1912 – 4 November 1988) was a British school teacher who became a leader of teacher trade unions.

Born in Kexborough near Barnsley, Thomas Driver came from a left-wing, working-class family in the South Yorkshire mining community.

In 1936 he married Thora Senior (they met when she was his nurse while he was hospitalized with rheumatic fever In 1937, Driver began a long career as a teacher of French, initially at Barnsley Central School, then at Keighley Junior Technical School.

Driver became president of the ATTI in 1961, and general secretary in 1969. Teacher training colleges at the time were suffering from job losses, and Driver spent much of the next couple of years supporting redundant lecturers in teacher training. He led the teachers' side of the Burnham Further Education Committee from 1969 to 1977.

Driver's organisational work on behalf of teachers was recognized internationally. He was the secretary of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP). In that capacity, he sought to heal the rift between the WCOTP and FISE (Fédération Internationale des Syndicats d'Education).

In 1977, Driver was made a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland. He was also an honorary fellow of the Sheffield City Polytechnic and of the North East London Polytechnic. Following his retirement in 1978, he was active in the pensioners' movement and sided with the Morning Star during its split from the CPGB in the 1980s.

Tom Driver died on 4 November 1988. He was 76.