Peter Nicholas papers

Rover shop stewards minutes, 1950-75; British Leyland joint management committees minutes, 1976-9; Amalgamated Engineering Union, Birmingham East district, divisional, and local minutes, 1947, 1964-76; British Leyland Motor Corporation Combined Trade Union Committee various minutes, 1968-79; subject files

<p>Researchers should note that the Paul Worm Automotive Industrial Relations Collection (MSS.356) contains material from Rover / British Leyland from a similar period.</p>

Open.

These papers of the prominent Rover shop steward Peter Nicholas were given to the Modern Records Centre in 1991.

Peter Nicholas' papers have been arranged to reflect his activities. In addition to his activities as a leading member of the Rover Combine Committee, he joined the British Leyland Trade Union Combine and became its treasurer. Virtually all the papers in the Rover Combine section predate the acquisition of the Rover company by Leyland in 1967. In the late 1970s, some bodies sprang up which were specifically to do with Rover shop stewards and their relations with management. These have also been included in the Rover Combine Section. Rover files in the British Leyland section are purely company documentation files. Peter Nicholas' personal files illustrate his activities as a member of the Communist Party and his interest in the cause of disabled people.

Peter Nicholas was born at Worcester in 1914. At the age of fourteen, he began work at the Star Motor Company and gained skills as a universal grinder. In 1943, he became a member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union and, five years later, he became an employee of the Rover company. In the same year, 1948, he secured election both as a shop steward and as an AEU convenor and became Secretary of the Joint Shop Stewards' Committee.