Jimmy Knapp, who died on August 13th aged 60, was a symbolic example of the deep, cultural, socio-political identity between British trade unions and the Labour Party. He was, for nearly 20 years, general secretary of Britain's largest railway workers' union, known until 1990 as the National Union of Railwaymen and since re-christened the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
Jimmy Knapp came to the leadership of the old NUR in 1983, in the midst of Margaret Thatcher's onslaught against organised labour. It was a difficult time for any trade union leader to inherit the hot seat of public-sector trade unionism; still more so to take charge of an organisation so deeply threaded into the fabric of British labour history.
It was already clear when he took over that the Conservative prime minister held a special distaste for the nationalised railways, second only to her loathing for the miners.
His first great challenge came when the National Union of Mineworkers' leader, Arthur Scargill, called his men out in 1984. The railways were a crucial element in the year-long miners' strike, and Jimmy Knapp gave the miners every support that was feasible, despite his private thoughts about the strategy of their president.
Although Jimmy Knapp came to the NUR leadership with the reputation of being a "wild lefty", the practice of his power was substantially different. He believed in a cautious, sensible and rational approach to the terrible problems facing what was then still British Railways - especially the under-investment - and often had to stand up to fierce criticism from within his 21-member executive, of which at least a third, to his left, demanded a much harder line. But Jimmy Knapp was determined not to follow in the footsteps of Scargill and the miners. He established a firm relationship with the late Ray Buckton, the veteran, influential leader of the main drivers' union ASLEF, and, for a time, it seemed that a merger might take place between the two old rival unions. It didn't happen - though both tried hard to achieve it.
Jimmy Knapp also fought his own executive over its demand to defy the 1984 Trade Union Act. He argued vehemently that his union must conduct ballots on strike action. He knew that any action by railwaymen, however morally just, needed the support of the passengers.
When he led a series of successful 24-hour wage strikes in 1989, he did so not only with the backing of his members' votes, but, to the government's amazement, with the support of many commuters, who agreed with the union case for more rail investment and an end to cutbacks.
Right to the end of his life, Jimmy Knapp campaigned for an end to cuts in the railway system, for more investment, for a greater concentration - and spend - on safety, as well as modernisation under public ownership. Throughout the Conservative government's stampede to privatisation, he warned of the dangers and damage that would be done to the network if it was sold off and fragmented.
Jimmy Knapp was born in Hurlford, Ayrshire, a year after the beginning of the second World War. His father, a working engineer, went into the army and he started school at Hurlford Primary before his father, also James, was demobbed.
He also learned his trade unionism early - at socialist Sunday school, the traditional cradle of so many labour leaders of the old brigade. On the bookshelves at home were the legendary socialist classics - Hewlett Johnson's The Socialist Sixth Of The World, Jack London's The Iron Heel, John Strachey's The Theory And Practice Of Socialism.
He went to Kilmarnock Academy and might have gone on to higher education, but, for the sons of Kilmarnock workers, a weekly wage packet was essential. So, at the age of 15, he went into the signal-box in his own village of Hurlford.
On his election as NUR general secretary in 1983, Jimmy Knapp became a member of the TUC general council, and served on it for the rest of his life. He was TUC president in 1993-1994. The only complaint from delegates was that his deep, gravelly voice sounded more like a train announcement at Glasgow Central station than a comment to a delegate over-running his or her speaking time.
He also served on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation, and was a board member of the Unity Trust Bank, and its president from 1989. From 1986, he was the TUC representative on the governing council of Ruskin College, Oxford.
Geoffrey Goodman James (Jimmy) Knapp: born 1940; died, August 2001