Sir Herbert Edwin Blain CBE (14 May 1870 – 16 December 1942) was a British local government administrator, safety campaigner, political agent and businessman who played a pioneering role in the development of 'white-collar' trade unionism amongst municipal workers.

The objectives of the Liverpool guild was to "provide means for social intercourse amongst its members, and for their improvement, advancement, and recreation, also promote a knowledge of the principles of local government".

He persuaded Sir William Forwood, a prominent Liverpool merchand and previous Lord Mayor of the city, to take on the role of the guild's first honorary president.

The Liverpool Municipal Officers' Guild organised a wide range of social, educational and sporting activities for its members and their families.

[4][1] Within a short period the guild, with Blain as its chairman, proved to be an efficiently run and highly successful friendly society with 1,200 members, supported by their employers.

Over the next few years he worked with staff at other authorities, resulting in similar guilds being formed at localities such as Hull, Derby, Oldham, Tunbridge Wells and Macclesfield.

Since its formation the MOA had been frustrated in its attempts to establish pensions for local government officers, resulting in falling membership numbers.

Blain and his colleagues had minimal interest in superannuation, as Liverpool was one of only a few local authorities giving pensions to its staff, but nevertheless agreed to join with the MOA.

[5][6] Several weeks prior to the joint circular being sent, Blain had left Liverpool to become manager of the newly-created tramways department at West Ham in east London.

Bringing his organisational skills to bear, Blain met with the MOA president and solicitor to the City of London Corporation, Sir Homewood Crawford, and persuaded him to oppose dissolution in favour of a reorganised national body.

[7] On 29 July 1905 a conference was held at the Inns of Court Hotel in High Holborn, attended by fourteen men representing seven provincial guilds (Bolton, Derby, Hull, Midlands, Oldham, Peterborough and Woolwich), the MOA and the Institute of Municipal and County Engineers.

[7] Within three months after the inaugural meeting the first National Executive Council, representing the founding guilds plus West Ham, Ilford and Bradford, met at Derby.

[8] In 1906 Blain approached the publishers Hodgetts Ltd. and persuaded them to convert their weekly magazine, The Public Health Engineer, to become NALGO's official journal, renamed The Local Government Officer and Contractor.

In general municipal officers considered themselves to be socially superior to the workers in manual or skilled professions, for whom trade unions had been established.

In October 1908 East Ham Council announced its intention to dismiss twenty-two officers, as well as reduce the wages and conditions of employment of the remainder of its staff, causing anger and consternation amongst the NALGO membership.

[18] In early December 1916 Blain was responsible for organising a conference at Caxton Hall in Westminster, "with a view to lessening the dangers of street traffic".

Blain's predecessor had been Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, who was blamed for the loss of the 1923 election and resigned as principal agent early in 1924 after a breakdown in his health.

The company was formed to acquire the sole rights, throughout the British Empire (with the exception of Canada), of "certain secret processes" in the manufacture of cellulose acetate and its conversion into non-inflammable cinema film.