Hugh Clegg (1920-95), the new ‘Warwick School’ of Industrial Relations and the Creation of the Modern Records Centre

Abstract

The Warwick Industrial Relations (IR) academics, George Bain and Hugh Clegg, were key movers in founding the Modern Records Centre (MRC) & attracting the unique collection of trade union and employers' records. In the late 1960s, after his crucial role on the 1965-68 'Donovan' Royal  Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations, Clegg was recruited from Nuffield College, Oxford to become a founding professor in what became Warwick Business School. He won SSRC funding to bring the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) to Warwick, which became the national centre for the field, with a global reputation, at a time when IR was arguably the central UK domestic issue. Leadership of the IRRU passed to George Bain, then Willy Brown. After retirement, Clegg then used the MRC for the final two volumes of his landmark  A History of British Trade Unions since 1889 (Oxford University Press 1985, 1994). Based on interviews with the archivist, Richard Storey, George Bain and other members of the 'Warwick School', my paper will discuss: (1) the formation of Warwick School IR; (2) Bain & Clegg's influence on the MRC; and (3) Clegg's writing on trade union history. In 2003, I co-edited a study of academic IR Understanding Work & Employment (OUP) & for the past 20 years I've published widely on Hugh Clegg. My full biography with Routledge is now out.