Giles was an old Etonian and Cambridge scholar who, after army service in World War One and a variety of activities in its immediate aftermath, devoted his career to state education, trade union service and Communist politics. He was headmaster of Acton County School from 1926 to 1956. He became a member of the Executive of the National Union of Teachers and eventually its President - in 1944, the year of the 'Butler' Education Act. In that year he was also Chairman of the Teachers Panel of the Burnham Committee. Giles thus achieved a considerable degree of influence at a crucial period in British educational history, and did so in spite of his well known Communist sympathies. Personal qualities seem to have enabled him to win the admiration of many with quite different views.

The archive consists of five box files of material which came to the Library following Mr Giles' death in October 1976.

The earliest significant section of the collection relates to the Teachers Labour League (later Educational Workers League) which Giles joined in the 1920s. The collection virtually ends in 1956 when Giles retired. Much of the collection relates to the N.U.T., but it cannot be described as an N.U.T. collection as such.

There is a strong emphasis on controversies in which Giles engaged, and persecutions and witch hunts to which Giles and other Communists were from time to time subjected. There were times (in 1940 and again from 1948 onwards) when he feared for his job.

Unfortunately the collection does not directly illuminate the influences which propelled Giles towards first Labour Party and then Communist politics, although there is no doubt that his wartime experience was critical, as he himself admitted.* Early influences not reflected in this archive seem to have included E.D. Morel and Sylvia Pankhurst.

Giles' internationalism is very apparent. His commitment to the educational politics of international communism is shown in the fact that he was an executive member of the Educational Workers International , although the collection contains no material from that body. It does, however, show some evidence of his work in the 1930s in support of victimised teachers in Germany and Spain.

*G.C.T. Giles, Why I joined the Communist Party, Educatio Bulletin., 3(1), Oct 1950, p.6; see also:
S. Galin, Giles is retiring, Education Today & Tomorrow, 8(6), July 1956, p.6-7
D. Wallis, A chat with Giles, Educ. Today & Tomorrow, 9(1), Sep-Oct 1956, p.15-16.

Box 1 - Personal Material

Photographs Of a portrait painting

Presidential address, 1944 Copy sent to WCML by NUT Headquarters

Folder - Texts and drafts of speeches, letters and articles A variety of undated items, either typescript or handwritten; some undoubtedly relate to his year as NUT President. Interesting items include a draft of a letter to Elsie (Parker?) relating to NUT General Secretary Sir Frederick Mander's attack in The Schoolmaster in 1940 on Communist policy to support the People's Convention. Also included is the text of a speech Giles gave in the presence of R.A. Butler to the Middlesex Secondary and Technical Association.

Folder- Attacks on Giles and Communist teachers in press and Parliament Cuttings and correspondence; the main items relate to items in the Daily Mail in 1949 and an attack in 1954 in the House of Commons by John Eden, M.P.

Folder - General correspondence (1932-1956, with one item from 1968) Most of this file relates directly or indirectly to Giles' activities in the National Union of Teachers. The file does not include correspondence which belongs to other sections in this Archive - e.g. the Educational Workers League material, and correspondence relating to the various controversies which are the subject of separate sections (see below).
Although most items are letters to Giles, or copies of letters he sent, the file also contains a few examples of letters by others which came into his possession. The file is in date order and a preliminary attempt has been made to index names of correspondents.
Clusters of material relate to his Presidential year (1944/5) and his retirement (1956). Other highlights include: letters from Leah Manning (NUT official) and a Communist named Spikes, which show hostility from Mander and his allies on the NUT Executive (1932, 1935); correspondence on the People's Convention issue (1941); a very detailed letter from James Chuter Ede (R.A.Butler's deputy) to Mander (April 1942); supportive letters during the post-war witch hunts, e.g. from Lady Simon, Edward Short and James Chuter Ede (1952, 1954, 1955).

Box 2 - Teachers Labour League/Educational Workers League

National Reports (1920, 1933) /Accounts (1925/6, 1933)

Annual Conferences (4th, 1925, agenda); (5th, 1926, agenda, minutes); (6th, 1928, agenda); (1931, draft resolution on plan of work); (1934, agenda)

Leaflet series/ other publicity material
Includes: Leaflet 1, 'Is the teachers work a failure?'; Leaflet 3/26, 'Broken pledges'; Messages to National Union of Women Teachers, Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters, National Union of Teachers; Reprints from 'Educational Worker'.

Correspondence on EWL matters (1930-1933)
Correspondents include David Capper on the journal, 'Educational Worker' (1930) and Owen Morgan on EWL aims and organizational structure (1932).
Links with other organizations are demonstrated in correspondence with R. Bridgeman (League against Imperialism) (1931); J.A.Mahon (National Minority Movement) (1931); and Ben Vincent (Teachers Anti-War Movement) particularly in a January 1933 letter notable for its attack on the Comintern.

Press and Publications Committee minutes and other material (1929-1931)
Handwritten minutes by Giles as Hon.Sec. Also includes annual report, 1931/2.

Communist Party fraction material (1931-2)
Giles' handwritten minutes. Also includes texts of resolutions, and correspondence with CPGB HQ, some of which shows evidence of friction.

Other material
Unsorted. Includes minutes; a paper on disaffiliation by the Labour Party; draft resolutions; speakers notes; material relating to a commission on the 'Educational Worker' journal.

Leaflets and correspondence relating mainly to branches in the London area, South Wales, and North West England - the latter including correspondence with Ben Ainley.

Membership lists and statistics
Includes details of unattached members.

Box 3 - Controversies

The centrepiece of this collection is correspondence between Giles and Henry Shelton, an IAAM activist and author of 'Thoughts of a Schoolmaster' (1937). They were both members of the Middlesex Secondary Association, and their aim was to campaign for a joint NUT/IAAM approach to security of tenure. Also included are copies of correspondence between Shelton and the NUT solicitor;an IAAM Memorandum on tenure to the Incorporated Association of Head Masters (1935); a report of an NUT deputation to the Board of Education (1936); minutes of NUT internal discussions; details of some specific tenure cases.

Correspondence and other material relating to the furore arising from this meeting at which Giles was one speaker (together with the President of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council, and a representative of the National Association of Schoolmasters). The mistaken impression was given on the bill that Giles was speaking on behalf of the NUT executive. This would have been in defiance of NUT policy not to share a platform with the NAS, and the Sheffield NUT attacked Giles partly on this ground. More dangerously, it was suggested in the local press that Giles had advocated 'Soviet control of schools' through joint meetings of teachers and parents. Giles vehemently denied this and pointed out he had left the meeting early, having taken no part in the decisions coming out of the meeting. Despite this, Giles was attacked in articles and correspondence in 'The Schoolmaster' and was sufficiently worried about his own security of tenure to consult the Chairman of the NUT Tenure Committee, who was strongly supportive.

Dispute with J.Bristow, Secretary, Bucks County Teachers Association, 1941-2
Giles threatened legal action for a remark allegedly made by Bristow at a BCTA meeting to the effect that Giles was "nearly sent to prison for what [he] did in Sheffield some time ago". Bristow denied making it and denied any intention to harm Giles, who was standing for the Vice Presidency at the time.

Box 4 - Controversies (cont)

A collection of letters and cuttings giving insight into a controversy during Giles' year as NUT President. Having visited a large number of schools in the preceding days, Giles attacked the physical conditions of many schools, especially in rural areas. Some lacked water and sewerage and were "fit only for the scrap heap". The speech upset the Chairman of Dorset Education Committee, a local M.P., and local clergy. It attracted support from the 'Dorset County Chronicle', and tacitly from the progressively minded Director of Education, J.L.Longland, who commented in a private letter that "these jars and jolts are very salutary provided they are administered by someone other than myself".

This telegram, amounting to nothing more than a general statement of support, was sent by 16 staff to the Confederation Generale de Travail on Dec 4th 1947. In the context of mounting attacks on Communists, it was seized upon by Giles' opponents on the Acton Education Committee and in the Old Actonians Association, who raised the spectre of 'Communist indoctrination' in the school, and roused the interest of the Daily Mail and the Daily Graphic. Giles feared for his tenure, but on this occasion the Education Committee voted down a hostile motion, and the Association refused to accept what was seen as an unconstitutional 'political' agenda item.

A collection which shows mounting attacks upon Communist influence in the NUT. It includes copies of articles in 'Teachers World' in March and April 1948, which were part of what seems to have been a largely successful campaign to get candidates for office to declare whether or not they were members of the Communist Party. In 1948 this successfully scuppered John Mansfield's attempt on the Vice-Presidency, and reduced Giles' vote for the Executive.

In October 1948 the attack was renewed through what was later acknowledged to have been a fabrication - a widely circulated leaflet issued on behalf of the 'Young Communist Action Group', which turned out to be a fictitious body with no genuine connection with either the Communist Party or the Young Communist League. The leaflet demonstrated to the electors how to use the PR system to get the five Communist candidates elected. Its effect, as intended, was the reverse - Giles lost his place in 1949 and did not regain it until 1952.

The Communists, supported by a number of other members, pressed for an enquiry, and eventually got it. Those engaged in the enquiry included the General Secretary, Ronald Gould, and the NUT solicitor. Their report is in the collection; they failed to trace the source of the hoax. In his autobiography Gould claimed that he thought he knew who had perpetrated it but could not prove it. ('Chalk up the memory', 1976, pp. 123-5).

The Collection contains some accompanying material relating to the activities of Conservative and Roman Catholic teachers during the 1949 election. It also contains a copy of a further Teachers World article (9th March 1949) highlighting plans of the London District Communist Party, and the alleged strength of their influence in the London Teachers Association.

In October 1950 Middlesex County Council refused to endorse the appointment of R.P. Neal to the Headship of Bounds Green School, and then imposed a blanket ban on the appointment of Communists or Fascists to Headships. This file contains material from the N.U.T. and I.A.A.M. and from Middlesex County Teachers Association and Acton Teachers Association.

The leading opponent of the Communists was the Chairman of the Education Committee, Alderman Hoare, a supporter of the anti-Communist campaigning group, 'Common Cause' By implication he accused Giles of Communist indoctrination in the school. Common Cause set up a Teachers Committee, which held a stormy public meeting in 1953, recorded in this archive.

The dispute dragged on for years. Union blacklisting of posts proved ineffective, and the N.U.T. failed to get a majority of Middlesex staff in 1956 to vote for a strike. It required a change of political control on Middlesex Council to reverse the ban. (See R.V. Seifert, Teacher militancy, 1987, pp67-9) The file also contains material on other tenure issues, including Durham County Council's attempt to make trade union membership compulsory (which all the unions opposed), and Bury Council's ban on conscientious objectors.

Box 5 - Other Organisations

A small heterogeneous file. Includes material on the attempts of Giles and others to propose NUT affiliation to the TUC in 1943, including the text of an exchange between Sir Frederick Mander and Sir Walter Citrine..

Organisations represented include the British Committee for the Relief of German Teachers (Giles was on the National Committee), the International Committee for the Relief of German Teachers, and International Committee for the Relief of Victimised Teachers (material dealing with Spain). Some correspondence is included in this file.

Small amounts of material from other organisations in which Giles had an interest. Perhaps the most significant are the National Young Teachers Movement (1931) and the Teachers Unity Movement (1933)

Highlights from Giles' general correspondence

From Leah Manning (Asst Sec, NUT Education Comms), 2/5/32
I do beg of you not to embroil me too much with communists' parents in the districts.
Anything which at any moment arouses a suspicion of the Executive that I was being used as a tool would jeopardise the whole of the work which I am endeavouring to do in the country.

From Spikes, 13/6/35
Mander hates you and me
I am sure he will do his damndest to get you out of the Union before December 15th
He is angling. to get the AMA in
Meanwhile, the vendetta goes on against Leah Manning

From Spikes?, 1/12/35
Leah is being led up the garden by Freddie
He tells her one story and Cove the opposite on the same day. Warn Leah

From D.N.Pritt etc/ Peoples Convention, 4/12/40
[The P.C. statement on education - Giles a signatory]

From F.Mander, 7/1/41
[Do not take part in Peoples Convention]

From R.A.Davies, 12/1/41
I have just been re-reading your magnificent effort at the NUT Executive Meeting in support of the People's Convention

From Giles to Elsie, 12/3/41
[Mander] is deliberately inciting Government action against Union members. who dare to oppose his and Executive policy, by suggesting that the postal service should be refused and schools declared protected places
Refusal to publish the Convention's reply
As bad as the BBC and worse by far than the Government itself
He is grossly abusing his control of The Schoolmaster
There is no-one else in the Executive on whom I can count to stand up to Mander

From Chuter Ede to Mander, 13/4/42
[Multilateral schools]
That pathetically pluckless document, the Spens Report
[Chapter Nine of Green Book]
[Ede's appointment to office]

From Giles to The Schoolmaster, 7/1/44
[Affiliation to TUC - Mander had written article using phrase, 'the TUC affiliation ramp']

From Giles to W.W.Barber, 10/1/44
The first time since I have been on the Executive that Mander found himself up against a solid block of opposition

From H.M.Walton (Sec to Middlesex CC Ed Committee to Giles, 22/3/44
[Congratulations on election]

From various to Giles, May 1946
Appreciation of New School Tie

From Leslie Missen to Mrs Chadwick, 19/8/46
I am very sorry that Mr Giles is not the new Secretary to the NUT
I fear they have appointed a man [who]. is too pugilistic

From David Chubb to Giles, 9/4/48
I see from the press that you have been attacked in the Acton Education Committee on political grounds, and that the attack was defeated by a vote of 16 to 6...[Comprehensive education]

From S.F.Ponting to Giles, 2/5/49
[Results of the elections]
I see that the worst has happened
In my opinion you have done greater service to the teachers of the country than any other member of the Executive

From K.Wormald (NUT Solicitor), 19/12/49 etc
[Re Daily Mail article]

From C.S.Darvill (member of NUT Exec.) to Giles, 30/4/50
There is now at last. a good nucleus of progressive people. Your work is bearing fruit.

From P.C.S. Caton to Giles, 16/7/50
[Re Colm Brogan's call in Everybody's for the eradication of communism in England starting with "your worthy self"]

From Lady Simon to Giles, 18/4/52
I was glad to see . that you have been elected to the Executive of the NUT once more
Although, as you know, I am not a Communist, I strongly disapprove of the witch hunts

From Harry Pollitt to Giles, 28/3/53
Congratulations on again being elected to the Executive Committee of your Union

From P.G. Mauger to Sir John Eden, 27/7/54
Irrelevant attack on a leading member of the teaching profession
[Other similar letters]

From E.W. Short, MP to Giles, 28/7/54
As the member who intervened to put young Eden on the spot for his disgraceful remarks
Always had a very high regard for you

From James Chuter Ede to Giles, 2/8/54
I do not think the man who attacked you had much sympathy in the House

From James Chuter Ede to C.A. Smith (Common Cause), 17/9/55
Personal friend of long standing
I would take part in the last Speech Day at Acton under his Head Mastership
I bitterly resent such attempts as yours to introduce political discrimination into the public education service of this country

From William Murray (Dep. Sec., NUT) to Giles, 5/6/56
[Cheque for 50 guineas sent in appreciation]

From Tudor David (editor, Teacher) to Giles, 8/2/68
I am beginning to gather together some articles for The Teacher on the occasion of the centenary of the NUT in 1970
I wonder if you would consider writing an article for The Teacher on the history of the Union as you knew it.

Highlights in other parts of Giles' Archive

Teachers Labour League/ Educational Workers Leage Correspondence

From D.C. (David Capper) to Giles, 16/12/30
[Re article in Educational Worker, and other comments on the journal]

From R. Bridgeman (Hon. Sec., League against Imperialism) to Giles, 4/4/31
[Re Empire Day and imperialist teaching in schools; accompanied by letter to David Capper in his role as Gen. Sec., EWL]

From J.A.M. (Mahon?) (National Minority Movement) to EWL, 19/11/31
[On campaigning methods]."our EWL must without delay take every possible step to take up the immediate economic questions agitating the teachers and on this basis to win contacts, readers and new members".[Another letter from Mahon to B.Shoesmith, 10/12/31]

From Owen (Morgan?) to Giles, 13/11/32
[Comments on aims and organizational structure of EWL including its relationship with National Minority Movement]

From Ben Vincent (Teachers Anti-War Movement) to Giles, 21/1/33
"I don't think you really know the way the T.A-W.M. is going. I don't myself; but I fear I am going to find myself at the head of a left wing reformist body."
"The whole ideology of the great majority of the T.A-W.M. people is entirely opposed to ours."
"crude slogans and the inclusion of the word 'imperialist' in the phrase 'anti-war'"
"It's nonsense to say the E.W.I. isn't a political organisation. Absolute nonsense because it consists only of violent left-wingers who indulge in the nauseating phraseology of the Comintern at every opportunity."
"the amazing over-emphasis of the conscious wickedness of the pacifists, parsons, quakers etc."
"to suggest that teachers can be classed with the proletarian who has no liberty is not calculated to win over the T.A-W M. class of person into the ranks of the revolutionary working class."

Correspondence from 1930s Tenure Campaign file

From H.S.Shelton (of Incorporated Assoc. of Assistant Masters) to Giles, 7/5/37
"The remarks in the 1933 report [Ann.report of IAAM]. were one factor which started me on this campaign"
"The man referred to in my first book (Thoughts of a Schoolmaster, p.57) as having been dismissed within sight of his pension was a master at Rutlish School, Merton. He died soon afterwards."

Copies of correspondence between Shelton and E.G.Floyd (NUT Solicitor) on NUT tenure policy, 21/6/38 - 2/11/38 (several items)

From Dorset speech file

From Giles to J.Longland (Director of Education), 27/6/44
"I don't envy you your job of coping with the obstacles of a decaying feudal system and of a malady described by one of the Dorset teachers as 'blue blood pressure'"

From Longland to Giles (in reply to a personal letter), 14/7/44
"Don't worry about the effects of your speech. I expected a sharp and violent reaction both from my Committee and from the non-provided schools association. I have to keep my mouth shut, but these jars or jolts are very salutary provided they are administered by someone other than myself."

Bibliography
[Locations given for those items held in WCML]

Barber, Michael
The Making of the 1944 Education Act. London, 1994
Reviews recent historical research, and favourably contrasts wartime policy making with that adopted for subsequent Education Acts. Contains a quotation from Giles' Presidential address of 1944 (p.97)

Butler, Lord
The Art of the possible. London, Hamilton, 1971
Essential reading for understanding the passage of the 1944 Act. Contains several references to the NUT, but none specifically to Giles.

Chuter Ede, James
Labour and the wartime coalition: from the diary of James Chuter Ede, 1941-1945 (ed) Kevin Jefferys. London, Historians P., 1987 [I23]
Ede was Parliamentary Secretary to R.A.Butler at the Board of Education. These extracts lack any reference to Giles, but there are many to W.G.Cove, the NUT sponsored Labour backbencher. The original of the diary is in the British Library.

Cole, G.D.H. (ed)
British trade unionism today.London, 1939[B32]
Contains a chapter by W.W.Hill on teachers organisations.

Educational Bulletin/ Education Today and Tomorrow[D49]
The Communist Party's educational journal. References of particular interest include: Ed. Bull. G.C.T.Giles, Why I joined the Communist Party, Oct.1950, p.6; Ed. Today & Tomorrow [Feature on Giles' retirement], July 1956, p.6; 'A chat with Giles', Sep/Oct 1956, p.15

Educational Worker [D49]
The journal of the Teachers Labour League/ Educational Workers League. WCML has most issues from 1926-1934. It is likely that Giles and Capper (who became General Secretary of the League) made many more contributions to the journal than are attributed to them. Examples of attributable items include: Giles, T.L.L. election address, April 1930, p.9; Capper, Lessons of the Special Conference, Jan. 1931, p.2.

Giles, G.C.T.
New school tie. London: Pilot P., 1946 [A16]
Giles' only book; it contains his vision of the opportunities afforded by the 1944 Education Act.

Giles, G.C.T.
Foreword to Christopher Meredith, Higher education for the people. London: Communist Party, 1948

Gould, Sir Ronald
Chalk up the memory. Birmingham, G.P.Alexander, 1976
Gould came from a Labour Party background. He joined the NUT's National Executive in 1936 (the same year as Giles), was President in 1943, and defeated Giles to the General Secretaryship in 1946, holding this post until 1970. His book contains many references to Giles: he warmed to his "gentlemanliness, integrity, kindness and unselfishness". The book has valuable discussions on many issues including the attempt by NUT to deal with religious issues, the various tenure problems, and the case of the fake 'Young Communist Action Group' leaflets, which helped to remove Communists from the National Executive in 1949 (see pp.123-5)

Lawn, Martin A.
Organised teachers and the Labour movement, 1900-1930. Univ. Sussex, Ph.D. thesis, 1982 [H42]
Contains relevant chapters on 'The purge of the left' and 'Teachers Labour League'. There are references to both Giles and Capper, including Public Record Office records for Capper's surveillance by Special Branch. (p.294)

Manning, Leah
A life for education. London: Gollancz, 1970. [A19]
The autobiography of a Labour MP and NUT official. Contains brief references to Giles and the Communists, and refers also to Frederick Mander's suspicion that she herself was a Communist.

Shelton, Henry Stanley
Thoughts of a schoolmaster

Simon, Brian
Education and the social order, 1940-1990. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1991 [J6]
Contains many reference to Giles, particularly in relation to 'The New School Tie', the Middlesex Ban, and various witch hunts.

Thomas, George
Mr. Speaker: the memoirs of the Viscount Tonypandy.London: Century, 1985
George Thomas was elected to the NUT Executive in 1942 and claims that the Communists asked him to stand for the Presidency (p.48). Gould and Simon both refer to incidents in Thomas's NUT career which do not feature in this autobiography.

Tropp, Asher
The school teachers. London: Heinemann, 1957[A19]
A history of the teaching profession prepared for the NUT. Useful on post-war tenure problems.