Richard Croucher

 Richard Croucher (1949–2022)

Richard Croucher, who died at the age of 73 last December, was a well-known figure in the field of labour studies in Britain and beyond. His books Engineers at War and We Refuse to Starve in Silence made a significant contribution to understanding and popularising working-class resistance in the first fifty years of the twentieth century and engaged a wide readership. For twenty years he worked as Tutor-Organiser for the WEA teaching courses for trade union activists. Subsequently he was a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Trade Union Management at the Cranfield Business School, Cranfield University. As Professor of Comparative Employment Relations at the Middlesex University Business School from 2005, he published on a diverse range of subjects in the fields of employment relations, Human Resource Management and labour history. A gifted researcher and talented teacher, he was a keen but critical advocate of trade unionism and its study. Richard did much to rescue the neglected dimension of international trade unionism from academic marginality. His book, co-authored with Elizabeth Cotton, Global Unions, Global Business, was particularly well received.

Colleagues may be interested in reading a full appreciation of Richard’s life and times written by John McIlroy and Alan Campbell. It may be accessed on the website of the Society for the Study of Labour History at:

Richard Croucher (1949 – 2022) – Society for the Study of Labour History (sslh.org.uk)

Richard Croucher (1949 – 2022) Richard Croucher, who died aged 73 on 16 December 2022, was a versatile scholar and talented labour historian who became well-known as a teacher and researcher in the field of employment relations … sslh.org.uk