Tilley, John. co-operator

John Vincent Tilley (1941-2005) Tilley was a journalist who worked on the Newcastle Journal, before moving to London as industrial, and later diplomatic, correspondent of the Scotsman.

In 1971, Tilley was elected to Wandsworth Council, where he became council leader. He was selected as Labour candidate to fight Kensington and Chelsea in the February 1974 and October 1974 elections, without success. He was then selected to fight a by-election in Lambeth Central in 1978, which he duly won, replacing Marcus Lipton. In Parliament, he served on Labour's opposition front bench, resigning in 1982 in opposition to the Party's stand on the Falklands War. As Member of Parliament for the Brixton area, he worked with Lord Scarman after the 1981 Brixton Riots for a better understanding of local social problems.

Tilley was a founding member of the hard-left Socialist Campaign Group in 1982, but his constituency seat was abolished for the 1983 election and he was selected to fight Southwark and Bermondsey instead. The seat had been safe Labour but Simon Hughes had won the constituency for the Liberal Party in a by-election earlier that year, and Hughes kept the seat in the general election. Tilley never returned to Parliament.

Tilley subsequently worked as chief economic adviser to the London Borough of Hackney and 11 years as parliamentary secretary to the Co-operative Union. From 2000 to 2002, he headed the parliamentary office of the Co-operative Group. An active co-operator, he wrote Churchill's Favourite Socialist: A Life of AV Alexander, a biography of an earlier co-operative activist and Member of Parliament, A. V. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tilley_%28politician%29

From the guide to the John Tilley Tie Collection, 20th century, (The National Co-operative Archive)