Briginshaw, Richard William

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1968
RICHARD WILLIAM BRIGINSHAW
to be Doctor of Laws

For many years our late Chancellor, Lord Beaverbrook, and the Foundation he established have sent to the university of New Brunswick a succession of distinguished men from the public life of Great Britain, authors, jurists, statesmen. Each has shared his learning and experience with, imparted his wit and eloquence to, our University community. The variety has been most notable. Each year we have enjoyed close exposure to some phase of the life and learning of a great country from which so much of our own heritage is derived. All have had reputations that are international. This year the element of variety is emphasized. We have before us a Lambeth boy who joined a trade union at the age of seventeen, a man who has presided over a conference of thirty-two nations, one who emerges as a classic example of the new brand of thinkers and philosophers the great trade union movement has given to modern Britain.

By vocation a printer, Richard William Briginshaw became secretary of his union in 1938 and has been a stalwart of the Trade Union movement ever since. An early study of economics and law has enabled him to rise above the more parochial features of industrial management. A good knowledge of history and a close exposure to politics have compelled upon him the conclusion that the welfare of organized labour must be identified with the welfare of the nation. In the last twilight of the empire-builders of old he has become a pathfinder for a new Britain that must adjust to a changing world.

A member of the General Council of the T.U.C., so great an element in the domestic life of Britain, Briginshaw has been warning his countrymen of perils abroad, of the waning of the British economy as the two great powers of the contemporary world confront one another. In his lifetime, Lord Beaverbrook attracted some unlikely political allies and, it is fair to say, this erudite product of the Socialist Left has become the political heir of our former Chancellor. Lord Beaverbrook's thundering denunciation of the Tory policy of entrance to the Common Market is echoed by Briginshaw's spirited attacks upon the same policy, now patronized by Labour. Small wonder that the Express newspaper considers him with favour! As a protagonist of the Forward Britain Movement he has addressed over one hundred meetings to stop what he considers to be the timid and menial drift of Britain towards Europe. In the conduct of this propaganda he has attacked not only the government of his own country. He has hard words for the United States, too, not unfamiliar in Canada.

It is a pleasure to welcome this doughty performer in the unceasing dialogue between Capital and Labour, this close friend and, we suspect on occasions, formidable antagonist of our present Chancellor.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 1