Sir Ronald Gould was General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers from 1947–1970.
Background
He was the son of the Labour Member of Parliament Frederick Gould. He was born in Midsomer Norton, Somerset. His father, Frederick Gould, was a bootmaker who was later Labour Member of Parliament of nearby Frome.
His mother, Emma Gay, had been a servant to the Monckton family at Clevedon.
Her duties including looking after their children including the young Sir Walter Monckton. She was a descendant of the playwright John Gay.
Education
At the age of three-and-a-half Ronald attended the local Methodist infants" school. After that he attended grammar school in Shepton Mallet, before going to Westminster College, London for teacher training. He completed his teacher training in 1924 and was offered a temporary teaching post at Milk Street Council School in Frome, and then took up a post at Radstock Council School, Radstock, Somerset.
Career
Fred and Emma were both musical: he was a baritone and she a soprano. At seven he transferred to a local middle school. At the outbreak of the war in 1939, Somerset County Council appointed him as Educational Liaison Officer with responsibilities for evacuated children from London, Ilford and East Ham.
He was also appointed as chairman of the local invasion committee.
After becoming a teacher, he regularly attended meetings of the Radstock North.U.T. association. He was elected to the local committee and then to the Somerset County Association.
He attended his first national National Union of Teachers meeting in 1931. He made his first speech at the conference a few years later in Scarborough.
In 1936 was elected to the National Union of Teachers Executive.
In 1942, Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, invited him to join a committee enquiring into the reasons for poor recruitment into coalmining. In April 1943 he was inducted as President of the National Union of Teachers, a post he held for a year. By 1946 he was chairman of Radstock Urban District Council and also a magistrate.
In 1947 he became General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, a post he held until 1970.
He was also the first President of the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession. In 1955 he received his knighthood.
He retired in 1970. In 1976, he published his autobiography.
He died in 1986. Ronald Gould"s tenure as General Secretary of the North.U.T. was at a period of immense change in United Kingdom schooling, heralded by the post-war Education reforms. The 1944 Education Acting paved the way for much of this change.
Gould saw the importance of "establishing equality of opportunity" via free secondary education, greater access to higher education, the virtual aboliton of selection and the introduction of comprehensive schools. The Times described his tenure as General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers as "immensely popular".
Generally regarded as an effective leader, it has been suggested he was reluctant to support militancy amongst teachers, preferring to keep the membership of the union together.