Central board/annual conference minutes, 1888-1966; signed minutes of executive council and various committees, 1897-1965 (with enclosures dating from 1877); annual returns under Companies Acts, 1938-1949; membership registers, 1933-1954; 'On the Road'/'Selling Today (members' journal), 1883-1974; members' handbook, 1963; history of union, 1953, with photographs of officers, c1920; board minutes of the United Kingdom Commercial Travellers' Printing and Publishing Company Limited, 1915-1918 (with enclosures dating from 1884); records of the North London, Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Worcester, Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and Hebden Bridge branches, the Midland Counties Federation and the Eastern Counties Federation, 1888-1981; collecting box and car badge.
United Commercial Travellers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland (UCTA)
This material is held atModern Records Centre, University of Warwick
- Reference
- GB 152 UCT
- Former Reference
- GB 152 UCT
- Dates of Creation
- 1877-1981
- Language of Material
- English
- Physical Description
- 73 boxes (68 [MSS.79], 5 [1018])
Scope and Content
Administrative / Biographical History
The United Commercial Travellers' Association was founded in 1883. Following its incorporation in 1902 , its full title was the United Commercial Travellers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland (U.K.C.T.A.) Incorporated. It merged with the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASTMS) in 1976 to form the ASTMS UCTA Section.
Reference: George S. Bain, 'Growth of white-collar unionism' (Clarendon : Oxford, 1970); Clive Jenkins and Barrie Sherman, White collar unionism : the rebellious salariat' (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979).
Access Information
This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/
Other Finding Aids
Link to full catalogue: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/UCT
Custodial History
Most of these records were deposited by Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs in February 1980. The West Midlands branch records were deposited by Mr W P Bayliss in June 1980, and by Mr J M Smythe (who also deposited the artefacts), secretary of the ASTMS UCTA Section Birmingham branch, in June 1982. The Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch branch records were deposited by Mr J Hone, assistant secretary of the ASTMS UCTA Section Dorset branch, in 1977. The minutes of the Eastern Counties Federation were donated by Mr Carl Brodie in 2012.