Peter Smith (trade unionist)

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Peter Anthony Smith CBE (25 June 1940 – 10 February 2006) was a British trade union leader. He led the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) as General Secretary from 1988 to 2002. Before that, he was an English teacher at Trinity School of John Whitgift from 1966 to 1974. When he started at the ATL, the union was small and faced competition from two larger unions: the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers. Smith helped ATL grow, and its membership more than tripled. He received a CBE in 2003 for services to education. He died from esophageal cancer on 10 February 2006, aged 65. He is survived by his wife Anne (married in 1961) and their son and daughter.