The Man at the Back: The Archive of Lord Tom Sawyer

This exhibition displays items from the Archive of Lord Tom Sawyer. As the former General Secretary of the Labour Party (1994-98), and Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Public Employees and Unison (1982-94) Sawyer was one of the key individuals in the modernisation of the Labour Party and trade union movement in the late twentieth century. Sawyer’s entry in the Dictionary of Labour Biography highlights his pivotal role in Labour’s modernisation: ‘Next to the triumvirate of Kinnock, Blair and Brown, Sawyer played probably the greatest individual part in the birth of New Labour.’ Consequently, in this exhibition, a variety of Sawyer’s letters, reports and photographs, are displayed to showcase his life’s work in the labour movement. The exhibition is part of a post-doctoral project at Teesside University on the life of Lord Sawyer, the University’s Chancellor. It complements the release of a new book by Dr. Christopher Massey, The Man at the Back: The Life and Journals of Lord Tom Sawyer, published by Teesside University.