Trade union official and stalwart socialist Malcolm Young has died aged 79 after a period of illness.

At a time when the unions were big news, Mr Young was the subject of a number of in-depth interviews in the Oxford Mail, and featured in countless stories of strikes and union politics.

District secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) for 26 years, Mr Young lived in east Oxford for most of his adult life and considered the city his home.

Born in 1926, Mr Young became an apprentice at a shipyard in his home town of Belfast after he left school at 14. Joining the AEU as an apprentice member, he had seen his first strike by the time he moved to Oxford a few years later.

The young Irishman worked at first as a tool-maker on the night shift at Pressed Steel in Cowley, but after marrying in 1951 he left for a day job -- and less money -- at Morris Radiators in north Oxford.

His wife, Betty Green, was the daughter of his landlady in Hurst Street. Their son, also Malcolm Young, joked: "He was sneaking across the hallway, hoping the floorboards wouldn't creak."

The family remained in the same house until just two years ago, when the elderly Mr Young moved to a nursing home in Headington.

After four years at Morris Radiators -- or the Rads as it was known then -- Mr Young was elected convenor of the shop stewards. By the time he become a full-time union official in 1961, membership had risen from 50 to 100 per cent of the workforce.

Always on the left wing of the union, he was hauled up before the national executive committee in 1965 over an unofficial strike at Pressed Steel, and ran against more establishment figures in a number of elections for divisional organiser of the union.

After retiring in 1987 due to ill health, Mr Young was able to spend more time with his wife and family. He still kept a hand in local politics though, regularly firing off letters to local MP Andrew Smith, and campaigning to save his local pub, the Black Swan on Crown Street, from closure.

Son Malcolm said: "Once he retired, he maintained his socialist views and was willing to involve himself in any cause that he believed was just and right."

He added: "The family are pretty devastated. Even though we knew it was coming, none of that lessens the blow. It is a huge loss."

Mr Young is survived by his wife, Betty, daughters Pauline, Yvonne and Diane, his son Malcolm, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.