Gavin Laird

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Sir Gavin Harry Laird {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} (14 March 1933 – 26 October 2017) was a Scottish trade unionist, who became General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and a Member of the Court of the Bank of England.

Growing up in Clydebank he attended a local high school then began working for Singer.{{cite web |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/an-era-ends-with-the-going-of-sir-gavin-1.673673 |title=An era ends with the going of Sir Gavin |work=Herald Scotland |last=Rogers |first=Roy |date=28 June 1995 |accessdate=18 August 2014}} He became an Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) shop steward there, then convenor.

Three years after taking up a full-time position with the union, he was elected to the AEU executive and later elected AEU general secretary, remaining in that position after the merger which created the AEEU. He addressed the Confederation of British Industry annual conference in 1986 – an unusual move for a trade unionist at the time. Laird held a number of other posts and directorships. He was a member of the Arts Council between 1983 and 1986.{{Cite news |last=Adeney |first=Martin |date=12 November 2017 |title=Sir Gavin Laird Obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/12/sir-gavin-laird-obituary |access-date=17 April 2024 |work=The Guardian}}

He received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1994,{{Cite web|url = http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|publisher = Heriot-Watt University|title = Honorary Graduates|access-date = 4 April 2016|archive-date = 18 April 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160418163907/http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|url-status = dead}} was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) under Margaret Thatcher's government and knighted in 1995 at the behest of Tony Blair.

He retired from the AEEU in 1995 and died in October 2017 at the age of 84 after a long illness.[https://www.realwire.com/releases/Sir-Gavin-Laird-CBE-1933-2017 Sir Gavin Laird C.B.E. 1933-2017]