Dates

• Existence: 1918 - 1994

Biography

Agnes McLean (1918-1994) was a trade unionist and regional councillor. Born in Glasgow, McLean attended the Proletarian Sunday School and the Socialist Sunday School from an early age. She began working at 14 as a bookbinder with Collins publishers but later joined Rolls Royce Ltd at Hillington, where she became a leading member of the Amalgamated Engineers Union (AEU), organising a number of strikes to further the rights of women in the labour force. She was the first woman to serve on the AEU executive. She left Rolls Royce Ltd. in 1977. She joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1942 and served on both the Scottish and national committees but left in 1969 to join the Labour Party, through which she became a councillor for Glasgow District Council and later the Strathclyde Regional Council in the 1970s. She was also a passionate dancer and travelled to Cuba in 1993 to film the Bafta-winning BBC documentary, 'In Cuba They're Still Dancing'. [Source: Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, 2006]

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