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George Wyver was a trade unionist who on on April 6, 1904 was one of the founders of The Borough of Wandsworth Trades and Labour Council. Wyver and a small band of organisers were regulars at the Sailor Prince pub on Earlsfield Road. Unlike Battersea its near neighbour, the population of Wandsworth was much more middle-class, it was also a Tory controlled borough. Reports at the time showed that Wandsworth trades council was active in union expansion after 1909 and the Battersea branch organised a Labour Week in October 1913 for trade union recruitment. The campaign coincided with a three week strike at Garton’s Glucose factory in which 900 workers joined the Workers Union, the forerunner to the Transport & General Workers Union. In 1970s Labour took control of Wandsworth from the Tories with the new leader being Ian McGarry a former trade union leader and constituency agent in Putney. It is not unusual for politicians to name streets after their own local political heroes.
