My father, Jim Richardson, who has died at the age of 94, dedicated his life to history, to teaching and to trade union activism.
Jim was born in Sheffield, the eldest of four boys. His father, William, was a tram driver and his mother, Annie (nee Jennings), worked in a variety of low-paid jobs. Growing up in the interwar depression years was tough and his memories of life before the advent of the welfare state informed his political outlook. He went to the local grammar school and in 1939, at the outbreak of the second world war, he was doing a short course in Italian at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, on a scholarship from the Cooperative Society.
During the war he served as a tank driver and was involved in operations in France and the Netherlands as well as assisting in the demobilisation of German soldiers.
After the conflict ended he went to Sheffield University and gained a first-class degree in history. He married Mair Phillips in 1946 and together they had six children. He worked as a history teacher at Woodhouse grammar school in Sheffield before moving into teacher training at Swinton Day Training College and then at Sidney Webb College in London. He was also an examiner for the University of Cambridge local examination syndicate, eventually becoming chief examiner for history O-level.
Jim was always an active trade unionist, first in the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education (ATCDE) which evolved into the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe) in 1976 and then into the UCU. In 1980 he served as president of the union. He was a member of the executive of the National Union of Teachers and also served on the Burnham committee for teachers’ pay for many years.
On retirement to Aston cum Aughton, near Sheffield, in 1986, he participated in the local community, serving as a parish councillor and school governor for many years.
Mair died in 2001. Jim is survived by his children and seven grandchildren.
