by the end of the war had twenty women organisers, who succeeded to take women's membership from 5,000 to 80,000 by the end of the war. The union also recruited among Belgian refugee engineers, who at the end of the war were transferred to the Belgian Metal Workers' Union. A large number of small, localised unions amalgamated in, with the National Farm and Dairy Workers' Union and Anglesey Workers' Union boosting agricultural membership, which peaked at around 120,000, and the National Union of Government Employees, led by Arthur Gourd, boosting membership in dockyards, which peaked at about 25,000. Expansion allowed the opening of an arbitration department, led by William Kelly, and the opening of new headquarters in Golders Green. A divisional structure was adopted in 1915, with Beard, Dallas, Ellery, Giles, Harris, Kerr, Morley and Titt appointed to head the new divisions, supplemented after the war by William Adamson, Gourd, Hugh Lawrie, Tom Macnamara (soon succeeded by Alf Edmonds), and James McKeag. In addition, the union led a successful general strike on the Isle of Man, and opened branches in Gibraltar, Malta and Tangier. In 1919, the union joined the National Amalgamated Workers Union, a loose confederation with the Municipal Employees Association and the National Amalgamated Union of Labour, but this dissolved in 1922. Membership of the union collapsed during the 1920s, with job losses due to the depression, the General Strike of 1926 and disputes over payments to members of the executive committee. In 1929, it merged into the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), with about 100,000 members remaining to transfer. This enabled the TGWU, for the first time, to gain significant numbers of members outside of the docks and transport industries. Election results The union sponsored Labour Party candidates in numerous Parliamentary elections, several of whom won election. Officials General Secretaries 1898: Tom Chambers 1900: Charles Duncan Presidents 1898: Charles Duncan 1900: Robert Morley 1913: John Beard References External links Catalogue of the WU archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Catalogue of Richard Hyman's research papers on the WU, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Trade unions established in 1898 Trade unions disestablished in 1929 1929 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom 1898 establishments in the United Kingdom Transport and General Workers' Union amalgamations Trade unions based in London