Hardie Ratcliffe

John Hardie Ratcliffe (2 January 1906 – 26 May 1975)[1] was an English musician, and General Secretary of the United Kingdom Musicians' Union from 1948.[2][3]

Ratcliffe was born in 1906 in Liverpool, and named after Keir Hardie.[2] In childhood, he played saxophone and flute,[2] and by the age of 17, when he joined the union, was already performing theatre orchestras in various towns and cities.[2] He established several branches of the union, and eventually gave up playing music, to devote all his energies to its administration, accepting a post as a full-time official in 1937. Although he gave notice of resignation in August 1962, during a dispute over internal policy matters, he was persuaded to withdraw it, and continued as General Secretary until his eventual retirement in 1971.[2]

He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 9 November 1964,[4] and died in 1975 in London.[2][5]