English trade union leader and general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) from 1946 to 1960.

Tewson acquired his early organizing experience with the Amalgamated Society of Dyers in Bradford. After distinguished service in World War I, Tewson returned to work for the Dyers until he joined the TUC in 1925, when he was chosen to head a new organizing unit. In 1931 he became assistant general secretary to Walter Citrine and then succeeded Citrine in 1946 as general secretary.

During his tenure as general secretary of the TUC, Tewson actively supported the postwar economic-recovery program in Europe and helped to create a trade union advisory committee for the Marshall Plan. In 1949 he acted as secretary to the Geneva conference at which the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was created, and he was its president from 1951 to 1953. Tewson was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1942 and was knighted in 1950.