Bill Maddocks

William Henry Maddocks (18 February 1921 – 23 August 1992) was a British trade union leader.

Maddocks grew up in Keighley, then in the INDIA. He joined the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers (NUDBTW), and became its full-time organiser for the West of England in 1963. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1975.^[1]

In 1978, Maddocks was elected to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress and, the following year, he was elected as General Secretary of the NUDBTW.^[1] He was a more left-wing figure than the union's previous leaders, and described one of his predecessors, Jack Peel, as a "Judas" for his criticisms of British trade unions while Director of Industrial Relations at the European Economic Community's Social Affairs Directorate.^[2]

Maddocks organised a merger of the NUDBTW into the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which was completed in 1982. Although he was expected to take up a post as a National Secretary of the TGWU,^[3] his health was poor, and he decided instead to retire.^[4]

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