The union was founded in 1834 in
Manchester as the Society of Friendly Boilermakers. It initially had fourteen members, which quickly grew and but soon established a branch in
Bolton, and in 1835 the Manchester branch formed a general council, which governed the whole union, led by secretary William Hughes. It quickly began a national expansion, with a branch in Bristol established in 1836, and one in London in 1839, and its first Irish branch in Belfast in 1841. Initially, these branches operated almost entirely independently, but from 1842, under new secretary John Roberts, it began introducing national controls on spending and reserves, and ran an annual delegate meeting. In 1845, the union was renamed as the '''United Friendly Boiler Makers' Society
. Its growth enabled it to employ Roberts on a full-time basis, and although he left the country unannounced in 1848, he was replaced by John Pennie. He kept the union independent, refusing to join the new Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), and in 1852 persuaded both the Scottish Society of Boilermakers and the recently formed, London-based Amicable and Provident Society of Journeymen Boilermakers of Great Britain to amalgamate. As many of the members of these unions, while using boilermaking techniques, were involved in building and repairing ships, the union was renamed as the United Society of Boilermakers and Iron and Steel Shipbuilders'''. Pennie soon decided to emigrate to the United States, and was briefly replaced by George Brogden then, after his death, by
John Allen. In 1977, the union agreed a merger with the
General and Municipal Workers' Union (GMWU), but this was voted down at its annual conference. Despite this, faced with a declining membership due to the reduction in jobs in shipbuilding, the union merged into the GMWU in 1982, which renamed itself as the
General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union. ==Election results==