Editing James Callaghan (section)

===Early career===
In his early years, Callaghan was known by his first name Leonard. When he entered politics in 1945 he decided to be known by his middle name James, and from then on he was referred to as James or Jim.{{sfn|Conroy|2006|p=3}} He attended [[Mayfield School, Portsmouth|Portsmouth Northern Secondary School]]. He gained the Senior Oxford Certificate in 1929, but could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the Civil Service entrance exam.{{sfn|Conroy|2006|pp=3–5}} At the age of 17, Callaghan left to work as a clerk for the [[Inland Revenue]] at [[Maidstone]] in [[Kent]]. While working at the Inland Revenue, Callaghan joined the Maidstone branch of the Labour Party and the Association of the Officers of Taxes (AOT), a [[trade union]] for this branch of the [[Civil Service]]; within a year of joining he became the office secretary of the union. In 1932 he passed a Civil Service exam that enabled him to become a senior tax officer, and in the same year he became the Kent branch secretary of the AOT. The following year he was elected to the AOT's national executive council. In 1934, he was transferred to Inland Revenue offices in London. Following a merger of unions in 1936, Callaghan was appointed a full-time union official and to the post of assistant secretary of the [[Inland Revenue Staff Federation]] (IRSF), and resigned from his Civil Service duties.{{sfn|Conroy|2006|pp=5–6}}

During his time working in the Inland Revenue in the early 1930s, Callaghan met his future wife [[Audrey Moulton]], and they were married in July 1938 at Maidstone.{{sfn|Conroy|2006|pp=6–8}}

His union position at the IRSF brought Callaghan into contact with [[Harold Laski]], the Chairman of the Labour Party's [[National Executive Committee of the Labour Party|National Executive Committee]] and an academic at the [[London School of Economics]]. Laski encouraged him to stand for Parliament, although later he requested several times that Callaghan study and lecture at the LSE.