Andy Dark joined the London Fire Brigade on 17 August 1981 and was enrolled in the FBU the next day.
He became a branch representative in 1982 and became a member of the divisional level joint committees for industrial relations and health and safety in 1983.
He became a divisional level FBU official in 1984. He held a divisional level official’s position until he became the acting regional chair for London in 2004 before becoming elected to the substantive post in January 2005.
He was elected assistant general secretary in a ballot which concluded on 26 September 2005. He was subsequently re-elected in 2010, 2015 and 2020.
He said: “I want to wish the very best for all members and staff of the union and thank all officials past and present for the friendship, assistance, commitment and patience over the last 40 or so years.
“In equal measure I want to express my gratitude to all staff, again past and present, for their help over the years. In particular I want to thank my PA, Jo Huggins and Sharon Lester, the general secretary’s PA, who stands in for Jo. Both of whom have kept me on track and out of trouble.
“As with all staff and officials, they have made the job as easy as they could for me. If people track back to those too-frequent occasions when I made a mistake, you will find that Jo and Sharon will both have been on leave on those days.”
Andy retires on 23 April –his 60th birthday.
