John Wheatley - Times Past

In partnership with the Glasgow Times, our archivists are exploring Glasgow's fascinating history. This week, Dr Irene O'Brien writes about John Wheatley. 

John Wheatley councillor, MP and a Cabinet Minister in the UK’s first Labour government, left a wonderful legacy of social housing across the UK.

John Wheatley (1869-1930) was born in Waterford, Ireland. In 1876 the family moved to Braehead, near Baillieston. His parents and their 8 children (sometimes with two lodgers) lived in a single room miner’s cottage.

At St Bridget’s school, a charismatic Dutch missionary priest inspired him. He joined the Catholic Young Men’s Society, the League of the Cross, and the Irish National Forester’s Friendly Society.

Wheatley joined his father down the pits at about 12 or 13. He remained a miner for around 12 years. He determined on a different future, finding time for reading, and enrolling in evening classes in the Atheneum, Glasgow. This was a 10-mile return trip, often on foot, from Baillieston.

After the mines, Wheatley worked in various occupations. From 1901 to 1906 he was employed by the Glasgow Observer, which was widely read by Catholics of Irish descent in the west of Scotland.

In 1906 he became a partner in a new printing and publishing company, which published leftist political works.  The company came under his sole control in 1921 and he moved into newspaper publishing in Glasgow. The best known of these was the Glasgow Eastern Standard which widely covered Wheatley’s activities and speeches until his death in 1930.

His politics were shaped by his experience in the mines, slum housing, his Irish background, and his strong Catholic convictions.

His first venture into politics was with the United Irish League which was supported by the immigrant Irish community in Britain. He became President of the local Daniel O’Connell branch in Shettleston. 

By 1906 he had broken with the League, and in a letter in the Observer, encouraged all Catholics attracted to Socialism to attend an open meeting. This led to the foundation of a Catholic Socialist Society.

His growing reputation as a speaker, lecturer, and his various pamphlets, brought him into contact with ILP’s most prominent members in Glasgow. In 1907 he stood unsuccessfully in Shettleston as the Independent Labour Party (ILP) candidate for Lanarkshire County Council. He was elected there three years later. 

Shettleston was absorbed into Glasgow in 1912, and Wheatley was duly elected a Glasgow Corporation councillor for the area.  He was very active serving in many committees, including Tramways, Health, and City Improvement.

A devout Catholic and Christian socialist, Wheatley was appalled at the slum housing and squalor of life in Glasgow. Housing became his political driver. In 1913 he published his pamphlet Eight Pound Cottages for Glasgow Citizens. This argued that the profits from the municipal tram services should be used to subsidise the building of cottages for Glasgow’s poor. 

On 26 April 1913, Forward, the newspaper of the ILP, reported the names of officials who supported his proposals. These included the City Engineer, Corporation Architects, Lord Provost, Town Clerk, and the Medical Officer of Health.  The scheme would have reduced rather than raised the rates.  It would also have provided municipal cottages at rents less than private enterprise cottages. Many opposed the use of municipal funds in this way.

Coincidently a week later the Corporation agreed to look at the establishment of municipal cottages for monkeys and other animals at Rouken Glen. This caused outrage. Wheatley commented that it was in bad taste for the Corporation to provide municipal cottages for monkeys and not for Glasgow’s poorest citizens. 

Alongside Maxton and other ILP members, Wheatley opposed the UK’s involvement in World War 1. He also assisted in organising and supporting the rent strikes which swept through Glasgow during the war. He was one of the best-known Glasgow councillors and became one of the ILP Clydeside MPs elected to Westminster in 1922.

A supporter of Ramsay Macdonald, Wheatley was appointed Minister of Health in the first Labour Government, 1924.  He created what became known as The Wheatley Housing Act, arguably his greatest achievement.  Lloyd George had promised ‘homes fit for heroes’, but it was Wheatley who delivered a huge expansion in affordable municipal housing throughout the UK.

His contribution to municipal housing is rightly memorialised by Scotland’s largest social landlord, Wheatley Homes, Glasgow. 

The collections discussed in this article are held by Glasgow City Archives. Please email archives@glasgowlife.org.uk if you have any questions.