GCT Giles

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GCT Giles
Portrait photo of GCT Giles.png
Born
Granville Courtnet Trelawny Giles

1891 (1891)
DiedOctober 1976 (aged 84–85)
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
EducationEton College
University of Cambridge
OccupationTeacher, officer in the British army, journalist
Known forLeading British communist.
Leading British educational activist.
Playing a central role in the evacuation of children during WWII.
First communist to become president of the National Union of Teachers
Notable work
The New School Tie (1946) [1]
Political party Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)

GCT Giles (1891–1976) was a leading British communist, most famous for playing a central role in the evacuation of 3 million children to the countryside during the Second World War, and for playing a prominent role in the formation of Britain's post-WWII educational reform. Despite being educated at both Eton College and the University of Cambridge, he was a lifelong supporter of comprehensive schools, fighting for the rights of working-class children and teachers.[1] He was also the first communist to be appointed president of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and headed one of Britain's first comprehensive schools.[2]

Giles became a communist after witnessing the destruction of the First World War and visiting the Soviet Union in 1925. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike,[3] and would remain a lifelong member. Later in life, he became the target of anti-communist witch-hunts in the form of slander by politicians and forged leaflets, leading to him temporarily losing his position as president of the NUT. Despite suffering from political persecution, he achieved a considerable influence over British educational policies, directly aiding the formation of British educational reform after WWII,[4] and greatly improving the working conditions of British teachers.[1]

Early and young adult life[]

Granville Courtnet Trelawny Giles, more famously known as GCT Giles, was born in 1891 and educated at Eton College.[3] During his education at Eton College, his "fag" (boy servant) was future Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.[3][5] After leaving Eton he became a scholar at the University of Cambridge.[5] Giles first came into contact with socialist theories during his time studying overseas in Germany in 1913.[3] The next year the First world war (WWI) broke out, which he fought in for several years as a British Army officer. After suffering a mental breakdown caused by the stress of the war, he began re-examining his beliefs.[3]

"Three years of war and the loss of many of my friends put me in hospital with a bad breakdown. I began to think and read."[3]

After being dismissed by the British military on the grounds of ill health,[6] Giles worked with disabled British military servicemen with the YMCA,[5] working as a teacher and a journalist.[3] He was briefly a member of the Labour Party, and Teacher's Labour League.[1] In 1925 he visited the Soviet Union, an event which had a profound effect on his political outlook and solidified his budding socialist beliefs.[3] Upon returning to Britain he joined both the National Union of Teachers (NUT), and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), becoming a lifelong member of both organisations. He joined and worked with the CPGB during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike, and became the head of Acton County School that same year,[7] a job he held between 1926 and 1956.[5] Outside of the communist movement, his greatest political influences in 1926 were recorded as being Sylvia Pankhurst and E. D. Morel.[5]

Anti-fascist and socialist activism 1930s[]

During the 1930s GCT Giles worked to support victimised teachers from Spain and Germany,[5] where rising fascist movements had placed many academics in danger. Giles was heavily associated with an organisation known as the International Committee for the Relief of Victimised Teachers, and was also a member of the national committee of the British Committee for the Relief of German Teachers.[5] From 1931 onwards, Giles played a significant role in the Communist Party's Teachers’ Advisory.[5] Fighting for higher wages and better conditions for British educators, Giles was repeatedly and unanimously elected the leader of the Middlesex Teachers’ Panel, which under his leadership achieved favourable conditions within negotiations with the County Authority.[5]

Using his position as a leader in the NUT, Giles managed to convince many fellow leading NUT members to oppose the release from prison of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists.[8]

Being especially interested in Spanish politics,[5] Giles acted as the star and commentator of the documentary "Spanish A.B.C", directed by Thorold Dickinson and produced by Sidney Cole.[9] Giles narrated a second film titled "Behind the Spanish Lines".[10][11]

In 1937 Giles was elected to the NUT executive,[7] and was elected the NUT Vice President in 1941.[5]

Educational activism[]

Evacuation of children during WWII[]

GCT Giles played a central role in the evacuation of 3 million children to the countryside during the Second World War (WWII).[7] During the outbreak of WWII, Giles emerged as a leading member of the NUT and was appointed as the leader of the head office at Hamilton House, the organisation that prepared the evacuation of teachers and young children from cities likely to be bombed by the German airforce.[7] Operation Pied Piper, centrally executed by 100,000 teachers, parents, and a team headed by GCT Giles, successfully evacuated over 3 million British children to the countryside without a single fatality.[7] This evacuation was the single largest mass migration of civilians in British history.

His actions during WWII would see his position rapidly rise within both the NUT and CPGB.

Activities as first communist president of the NUT[]

In 1944 GCT Giles was elected the president of the National Union of Teachers (NUT),[8] becoming the first communist to hold the position.[7]

Upon becoming president of the NUT, Giles threw himself into working to support the 1944 Education Act, speaking at over 200 meetings in a single year discussing both the bill and the act.[7]

Giles was selected by the Education Minister to tour and give speeches at sites throughout the UK where allied troops were preparing for the Normandy landings (D-Day).[7]

After WWII, Giles's position as the president of the NUT put him in a position to make direct input into the direction of Britain's post-WWII educational reforms.[12]

The New School Tie (1946)[]

In 1946 Giles published his most famous work, The New School Tie (1946).[13] This campaigning pamphlet was dedicated to supporting the 1944 Education Act.[7] Within this work, Giles argued strongly that the quality of education that a child receives should not be determined by their family wealth.[14] The New School Tie proved to be very popular with his contemporaries and has been described by historians as a clear expression of post-war radical populism.[15]

Although the 1944 Education Act Act did not go as far as addressing the issues of income inequality,[16] Giles and many other educational reformists were satisfied with the Act.[17]

Anti-communist persecution[]

In 1948, forged leaflets were circulated, purportedly belonging to a non-existent organisation called the "Young Communist Action Group", which claimed to show secret plans of how communists could take over the NUT leadership.[5] As a consequence of this hoax, Giles lost his position as the president of the NUT, although he would regain the position in 1952. An investigation by the NUT and communist activists into the source of the hoax failed to discover the source of the leaflets.[5] Despite the source of the hoax leaflets remaining a mystery, Giles continued to become the focus of attacks by anti-communist politicians. Many MPs including John Eden took advantage of the safeguards against libellous speech in parliament to slander and attack Giles in British news media, leading to partial bans on communists joining certain teaching professions.[5] These McCarthyist attacks and slander campaigns against British communists led to many teachers losing their jobs, including Margaret Clarke, John Mansfield, and J.T. Jones.[18]

Later life[]

At an unknown date, Giles married fellow lifelong communist activist Betsy Giles, and the two of them lived for many years in Chiswick.[5] Giles retired from teaching in 1956.[5][19]

In 1968 he was one of the members of the CPGB executive committee to vote against supporting the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia.[20]

GCT Giles died in October 1976. After his death, many of his possessions were donated to the Working Class Movement Library.

See also[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ a b c "Giles – The New School Tie (1946) – notes on the text". www.educationengland.org.uk. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  2. ^ Vickers, Salley (12 December 2010). "Once upon a life: Salley Vickers". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  4. ^ Parsons, Simon (1997). "British Communist Party School Teachers in the 1940s and 1950s". Science & Society. 61 (1): 53. JSTOR 40403604 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Stevenson, Graham (19 September 2008). "GILES G C T". Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Territorial Forces" (PDF). The London Gazette. 24 September 1917. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  8. ^ a b Parsons, Steve (1997). "British Communist Party School Teachers in the 1940s and 1950s". Science & Society. 61 (1): 51. JSTOR 40403604 – via JSTOR.
  9. ^ Cole, Sidney; Dickinson, Thorold, Spanish A.B.C. (Documentary, Short), G. C. T. Giles, Progressive Film Institute, retrieved 12 March 2021
  10. ^ "Behind the Spanish Lines – Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda – Adam Matthew Digital". www.socialismonfilm.amdigital.co.uk. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  11. ^ "GretCine.com". gretcine.com. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  12. ^ Kavanagh, Matthew R. (2015). British Communism and the Politics of Education 1926–1968 (PDF). University of Manchester. p. 17.
  13. ^ "Giles – The New School Tie (1946)". www.educationengland.org.uk. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  14. ^ Garrill, Simon (9 December 2013). "The Eleven Plus". Lead in School. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  15. ^ CCCS, CCCS (2013). Unpopular Education: Schooling and Social Democracy in England Since 1944. E-Book: Taylor & Francis. p. 66. ISBN 9781134706938.
  16. ^ McCulloch, Gary (2002). Philosophers and Kings: Education for Leadership in Modern England. Cambridge University Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9780521892551.
  17. ^ Jones, Ken (2016). Education in Britain. E-Book version: Wiley. ISBN 978-1509505234.
  18. ^ Parsons, Steve (1997). "British Communist Party School Teachers in the 1940s and 1950s". Science & Society. 61 (1): 47–48. JSTOR 40403604 – via JSTOR.
  19. ^ Harker, Ben (2020). The Chronology of Revolution: Communism, Culture, and Civil Society in Twentieth-Century Britain. E-Book version: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. ISBN 9781487536169.
  20. ^ Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
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