Sir Leslie Cannon was a prominent union official and served as General President of the Electrical Trades Union

Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union

The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, known as the EETPU was a British trade union formed in 1968 as a union for electricians.-History:...

 from 1963 to 1970. He was born in Wigan

Wigan

Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...

, the son of a coalminer, and became a Communist activist, and trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 leader; member of Electrical Trades Union Executive Council, North Lancashire and Merseyside, 1948 - 1954. He left the Communist Party of Great Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 in 1956. In 1961 he uncovered an ETU ballot rigging scandal, and successfully sued the union. Cannon became president of the ETU in September 1963, a post left vacant by disgraced former president Frank Foulkes.

In his time as leader of the ETU he took part in a merger with the plumbers' union to create the EETPU.

Cannon died from cancer on 9 December 1970.

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