ABSTRACT
NALGO was established in 1905 with 5,000 members, from a merger of the Liverpool Municipal Officers' Guild, the London Municipal Officers' Association and other municipal officers' associations. One of its early leaders was Herbert Blain, who had established the Liverpool Municipal Officers' Guild in 1896. Blain was the first Chairman of NALGO and later became Principal Agent of the Conservative Party between 1924 and 1927 (Maybin, 1980). According to Spoor (1967), in the early years much of NALGO's work was concerned with organizing social activities for the members, such as rifle clubs, sports clubs, and holiday and motoring clubs, as well as establishing a building society and a savings and insurance society. He notes that the Sheffield Guild originally developed from a rifle club. NALGO's later radicalism and progressive stance on a whole range of questions thus developed from its beginnings as a fairly conservative occupational association.
