LEEDS' “MR NALGO”

John Fraser, who was for many years the key area official of NALGO - the National and Local Government Officers Association, now part of the Unison trade union - has died at the age of 98. He began work in the City Treasurer’s Department of Leeds City Council in 1929 having had to leave school to assist the family’s income rather than going on to university. He was for nineteen the City Council’s key officer for the National Savings movement and, before his retirement in 1976, he was the Council’s Publicity Officer, including being the key officer for “Project Leeds,” run in co-operation with the Chambers of Trade and Commerce.

John Fraser was involved in trade union work almost from the beginning of his employment and, with the City Council’s co-operation, he spent increasing amounts of time on NALGO business as his abilities and commitment were recognised by being elected to a succession of union positions, locally, regionally and nationally, including being a member of its National Executive from 1966. A stalwart of traditional Labour and trade union roles, the leftward trend of the 1970s caused him considerable difficulty with his members and with his own activities.

For many years he edited The Guildman, the Leeds branch NALGO journal, which won the first prize in the union’s national magazine competition for four consecutive years.

He was a conscientious objector during the war and did his war work in forestry at Hawkshead in Cumbria.  His pacifism later led him to active involvement with the Quaker meeting in Adel. He developed a keen interest in trees and in botany, including a thorough knowledge of the latin names of plants. His love of walking and of mountains included a successful climb of the Matterhorn.

John Fraser had a wide range of interests, including mythology, the classics and music, all of which he studied assiduously. He himself wrote poetry, some of which was later published. In later life he suffered serious deterioration in his sight which was only partly relieved by two cataract operations and, remarkably, at the age of 93, by a corneal graft from one eye to the other.

His wife died in 2000, and he leaves three children and a number of grandchildren and great grandchildren.

John Hall Fraser, NALGO official, 1911 - 2009