George Martindale

UNTIL the very end of his life, trade unionist and autodidact George Martindale continued to read the Morning Star on his iPad.

According to his niece Gill Peters, this ritual captures the two great animating forces in his life: a love of technology and of left-wing politics.

Mr Martindale, who has died aged 99, spent his working life as an engineer and proud trade unionist, serving as an active member of the Islington Trades Union Council (ITUC) since 1944, including one stint as secretary.

Born in Barnsbury in 1923, he left school at 14 and joined Edwards Engineering as a trainee engineer. As a teenager during the 1930s, he became a member of the Communist Party in response to the rise of fascism in the borough.

“In the 1930s, the Communist Party was against the fascists, which was a terrible movement in London, and especially around the Islington area – there were a lot of people recruited at that time,” Ms Peters said.

Despite his training as an engineer, when Mr Martindale was called up for National Service after the war he was sent to join the air force in India, Singapore and Penang as a cook.

“He was an engineer and they sent him as a cook – but he couldn’t really cook!” Ms Peters explained.

After the war, Mr Martindale joined the Post Office as a power engineer, where he worked for 39 years.

In an interview with the Britain at Work oral history project many years later, he said of the post-war period: “Suddenly there was the NHS. We had good jobs and although the pay wasn’t brilliant we had them until we retired. I was always a member of a trade union. Things were obviously tough during the war. But after it was over life got so much better.”

Mr Martindale during his National Service

After the war he married his wife, Rose. Together they enjoyed long walks and dancing – “I remember them learn­ing the cha-cha-cha,” Ms Peters said – and lived together happily for 45 years until Rose’s death.

Ms Peters remembers her uncle as someone fascinated by technology. “One of the only times he went abroad was for my daughter’s wedding in Austria and he nearly got run over looking up at a cable car, trying to see how it was working,” she said.

Even in his late 90s, Mr Martindale kept abreast of the latest technologies, his niece said, using a smartphone to stay in touch with his family and friends and following current affairs from his iPad.

A self-taught man, he also loved reading and always kept a dictionary and thesaurus by his side so he could learn new words.

Mr Martindale was a “very political” man, according to his friend and fellow trade unionist, Finsbury Park councillor Gary Heather, who met him in the 1990s.

Cllr Heather describes him as someone who always saw the bigger picture, focusing on “macro” analysis of the labour movement rather than “micro” details of trade union disputes.

Even after he retired in the late 1980s, he remained an active member of the ITUC in the retired members section. In 2019, the trade union stalwart was presented with the TUC silver badge for a life of service.

Dave Welsh, who interviewed Mr Martindale as part of Britain at Work, said: “George was not someone who would push and bully people into thinking his way. He was always someone who would take his time, he was very measured. He always made it clear where he stood, but you could count on him to put a clear and thoughtful view across.

“There is a real need for the younger generation – those who are beginning to learn about trade unions and what they do – to hear from people like George. What George bought to the movement is really valuable: the knowledge and experience of someone of that calibre really shines through.”

Mr Martindale is survived by four nieces and nephews and their families.