Bill Deal, who served as president of the Fire Brigades Union from 1980 until 1987, has died at the age of 83 after a short illness.
Born in 1932, Bill joined what was then West Ham fire brigade in 1957 before moving out to Essex with his young family in the early 1960s, serving at four different stations before settling in at Hadleigh fire station as his primary posting. While responding to a fire on board a vessel at Tilbury docks along the Thames estuary, Bill found himself in the hold of the ship when it reignited. He was badly injured and spent three months recovering. Forty years later you could still see on Bill’s face the outline of where his hands had been when he had tried to protect himself during the fire.
Bill’s years in Essex politicised him and he found himself gradually taking on more duties for the union before becoming the FBU executive council member for East Anglia during a particularly difficult period of the union’s history.
In 1977, the FBU embarked on its first ever national strike over continual low pay in the fire service. Despite working a 48 hour week, for which they were paid on average £3,700 a year, many firefighters had to support their families with state handouts.
Bill’s son Steve, who followed his father into the fire service, remembers as a teenager spending Christmas day on the picket line at Canvey Island fire station as the strike carried on throughout the holiday season. He remembers how his father would always walk up to a telephone box in order to make calls instead of using the landline. “Another union official had picked up the landline one day during the strike to make a call only to find a recording of a previous conversation he’d had playing back to him. The authorities were listening in to senior officials in the union. Dad used to have a little fun with it. He’d invent fake mass pickets to take place at some remote fire station that the police would then turn up to.”
Negotiations continued between the FBU and the Home Office, but it took until January for a settlement to be brokered, with firefighters receiving a 10% pay rise and guarantees of future increases via a pay formula.
It was a couple of years later when Bill became president of the union in 1980 until his retirement in 1987. He continued to do his shifts at stations across Essex while serving in one of the unions’ most prestigious positions, which must have taken a lot of stamina. Politics was always close to Bill’s heart even after he retired, and the lifelong socialist stood as the Labour candidate in the 1987 general election for his home seat of Castle Point. He continued to support firefighters in his retirement, last year attending the ‘No More Lies’ pension demonstration in London.
Bill’s family remember him as a fun loving, principled and proud man. He leaves behind his wife Joan and their three grown up children Brian, Steve and Tracy.
Alan McLean, the current FBU president, paid tribute to his predecessor. “I was fortunate to meet him on several occasions and he was an inspiring, decent and forthright man. He was a true comrade. Bill will be fondly remembered and sadly missed. He led our union at a key time in the movement's history following the 1977 pay dispute with the government. Bill was a great tactician and realised the need for unity across the movement.”
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Bill was the president of the FBU when I first joined the fire service. He was a socialist and trade unionist who vigorously fought tooth and nail for his members. We send our condolences to his family and friends.”
Bill Deal’s funeral will be held at Pitsea Crematorium, Church Road, Pitsea, Basildon, Essex, SS13 2HG on Wednesday 6 April at 12.40pm.
