W. A. Appleton

[1] He joined the Amalgamated Society of Operative Lace Makers and was elected its general secretary in 1896, after its previous leader was sacked as he had been involved in fraud.

[1][2] When he and James O'Grady lobbied the government with specific proposals for increasing soldiers' pay, these were eventually implemented - albeit only in the summer of 1919.

The following year, the TUC persuaded the IFTU that, as the larger body, it should represent the UK, and Appleton's term as president ended.

He used it to promote his personal views, supporting the Liberal Party and attacking Robert Smillie and the Miners' Federation of Great Britain.

Despite it no longer being the official journal of the GFTU, it was circulated to its members, and its views were widely interpreted as being the federation's policy, leading to much criticism from the TUC.

The largest remaining unions left the federation after the UK general strike, as the federation had refused strike pay for their members, and by this point Sam Elsbury, a communist from the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers described Appleton as "one of the worst lickspittles of the capitalist class that we have in this country today".