Service Jim

Jim Service

Aged ten, Jim accompanied his mother on door to door and street collections for the International Brigade. He became a member of the Socialist Sunday School and the Woodcraft Folk, joining the Young Communist League (YCL) in 1942, when he was fifteen. He later joined the Communist Party, of which he was a member for the rest of his life.

In his youth he worked as a painter, becoming a member of the Scottish Painters Union, which later became part of UCATT. He subsequently went on to work in Scottish television and chaired a joint union shop stewards committee before becoming a full time official for the National Association of Theatre and Kinematic Employees (NATKE), now part of BECTU. In 1978, he became an organiser and then Scottish secretary of Equity, remaining in that post until he retired from full time work.

As a baritone singer he was involved with, along with his wife Isobel, and became conductor of the YCL choir which won many prizes and sang at festivals all over Europe. He was a member of the Scottish Youth Theatre Board and died, aged 77 years, on 24th December 2004.

Source: Morning Star January 4th 2005