London Society of Compositors

The London Society of Compositors was a British trade union, representing print workers in London.

The union was founded as the London Union of Compositors in 1834 by the merger of the London Trade Society of Compositors and the London General Trade Society of Compositors. The following year, it was joined by the News Society of Compositors. In 1845, the union was officially dissolved, its members designating it the South Eastern District of the National Typographical Association. The national organisation collapsed, and the London group re-established itself as the "London Society of Compositors".

The union had a membership of over 10,000 by 1910, and attempted to expand outside London, but the Trades Union Congress instituted arbitration which limited it to a fifteen-mile radius of central London, the Typographical Association having rights to organise in the remainder of England.

In 1955, the Society merged with the Printing Machine Managers' Trade Society and was renamed the London Typographical Society. In 1964, it merged with the Typographical Association to form the National Graphical Association.

The union sponsored Labour Party candidates in several Parliamentary elections, many of whom won election.^[2]

• 1848: Edward Edwards
• 1850: John Boyett
• 1854: William Cox
• 1857: William Beckett
• 1863: Henry Self
• 1881: C. J. Drummond
• 1892: C. W. Bowerman
• 1906: Thomas Naylor
• 1938: Alfred M. Wall
• 1945: Robert Willis
• 1955: Robert Willis and Percy Astins
• 1956: Robert Willis

• Arthur Marsh, Victoria Ryan and John B. Smethurst, Historical Directory of Trade Unions

• Catalogue of the LSC archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
• Catalogue of the PMMTS archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
• Catalogue of the LTS archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick