William Devenay

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William Devenay (1864–12 May 1934) was a British trade unionist and Labour politician. Born in Renfrew, Scotland, he worked as a dock labourer and later drove a baker's van in London. He joined the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union and became its London District Secretary. He also joined the Independent Labour Party and in 1898 became its first councillor in West Ham. When the ILP aligned with the Labour Party, he became an alderman in 1911 and Mayor of West Ham in 1919–1920, the first former docker to be a Labour mayor. He stood for Labour in Mile End at the 1918 general election, finishing second with 25.1% of the vote. He remained active in the Dockers' Union as assistant national organiser and helped lead a major transport workers' strike in London in 1911; Ben Tillett described him as "the plodder of the movement." In 1922, the Dockers' Union joined the Transport and General Workers' Union, and Devenay was appointed secretary of its General Workers Group. In 1914 he was appointed to the Port of London Authority, replacing Harry Orbell, and in 1930 he became chair of its maintenance committee, the most senior post held by a trade unionist on the authority at that time. He retired from his union posts in 1932 and died in May 1934.