BOB GILLESPIE who died on April 12 aged 85, was a staunch trade unionist and socialist, well-known and respected in the Scottish trade union and labour movement.

From humble beginnings he became a national officer of the print unions Sogat and GPMU.

Born in 1937, Robert Pollock Gillespie was evacuated to Ayrshire with his mother during the second world war. His father was an infantryman serving overseas.

“They never had their own place, always renting floor space in the flat of another family,” said his son Bobby, lead singer with the world-famous rock band Primal Scream. 

As a child Bob was admitted to hospital with malnutrition and at school, he was mocked by teachers and pupils.

He joined the army aged 17, becoming a lance bombardier in the Royal Artillery, being posted to Hong Kong during the cold war.

“He told me that the army made a man out of him, It also gave him an insight into the working of the British class system,” said son Bobby.

After leaving the army he married in 1960 and had two sons.

Both Bob and his wife worked at book publishers Collins in Glasgow where he rose through the union ranks to become  the full time branch secretary of the Sogat branch in Glasgow.

“Bob was a street fighter — a tiger,” a former Sogat officer once told me. Bob became well-known in the Scottish trade union movement for his commitment, dedication and internationalism.

During the Thatcher years he lead a multi-union campaign to erect a statue in Glasgow to commemorate members of the International Brigade who fought in the Spanish civil war. 

Following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union, he helped raise over £1 million to support those affected by the disaster — and he arranged for children from Chernobyl to visit Britain for a holiday at Sogat facilities in Ayr and on the south coast.

As a branch secretary, Bob created one of the biggest Sogat branches outside of London by organising across the industry, especially white-collar workers.

He supported workers in other unions involved in disputes. Peta Steel, a former national officer of the NUJ, recalled that Bob was steadfast in his support for NUJ members in a national strike by journalists in Scottish newspapers. 

There has been much focus in the media in the days since Bob’s passing on the November 1988 Govan by-election where he was Labour’s candidate.

Sitting MP Bruce Millan had become a European commissioner and Govan was seen as a safe Labour seat.

But the SNP, which had finished fourth at the previous election, selected ex-Labour MP Jim Sillars to fight the seat.

Sillars was a wily operator, while Labour’s minders “were complacent and didn’t know how to deal with the SNP,” one ex-union officer involved in the campaign recalled.

“The party officials from London didn’t know how to handle the campaign in Scotland on the poll tax and rejected the idea of mass non-payment, giving the SNP a free pass becoming the anti-poll tax party.”

Robert Maxwell also put the boot into Bob, using the Daily Record to vilify him.

Bob even offered to stand down but Neil Kinnock told him to press on. Sillars, who knew the ins and outs of the Labour Party in Scotland, won the candidates’ TV debate and won the seat with a 33 per cent swing. 

Labour nationally tried to make Bob the scapegoat but he handled the defeat with dignity. He never mentioned the result except for commenting it took up six weeks of his life — and then he got on with the job of being a union official.

When Sogat merged with the NGA to form the print and paper union the GPMU in 1991, Bob had been elected a national officer of Sogat and became a national officer of the new union, moving to Bedford, the site of union’s HQ.

Among his responsibilities were commercial print and print finishing, the government’s printing operation, HMSO and Remploy.

He was a passionate supporter of union members with disabilities who worked for Remploy and for other workers with disabilities. 

I well recall a barnstorming speech at a GPMU conference where Bob — a powerful orator — defended members employed by the government-owned Remploy for which he received thunderous ovation. 

As deputy general secretary of GPMU I got to know him well. You couldn’t  really miss him. He was “one of the great characters” as one former staff member said.

Another longstanding activist on learning of Bob’s passing said: “I remember his support on the picket line during the long running strike at Arrowsmith’s in Bristol — marching with the members he lifted their spirits in times of real hardship.”

He was generous, witty and well-read with a detailed knowledge of the trade union movement.

He was also very proud of his two sons Bobby (who credits his father with introducing him to rock ’n’ roll and socialism) and Graham who also worked in the music industry. 

Bob was a great trade unionist, an old school socialist and a steadfast comrade.

Tony Burke is the former deputy general secretary of the GPMU and a former assistant general secretary of Unite.