This week my post is about an intriguing historical photograph of a group of men taken in or around 1922. They are formally dressed in suits, some in dinner suits. Seated and standing for a photographer to record them. They look serious, thoughtful and with meaningful intent.
The Query Club, Tredegar, about 1922. Nye Bevan in the back row, second from the right next to my Great Uncle Fred at the end of the row. In the front row, second from the left is my Great Uncle George. (From the collection at the Tredegar Community Archive)
The purpose of the group was debate but not necessarily of a great intellectual level. It was a platform for examining the impact of the post war lockouts from the collieries after the First World War. Coal mines had been nationalised during the war and when they were returned to their owners they revised the contracts for their workers on lower wages. The industrial action that naturally followed, led to ‘lockouts’ by the owners thus negating the strike.
Studying the Census returns for Tredegar shows the impact of these lockouts.
It affected my two Great Uncles, Fred and George because they were employees of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Works. In 1911 they were described as Hewers or Overground Timber workers. Now they were described as ‘Locked Out’.
In other household men might describe themselves as Unemployed.
Returning to the photograph and we see a group of men who were locked out from their jobs, or in the case of one of them, returning to his hometown after studying at the Labour College in London to put his energy into fighting for employment rights and the health provision of the miners in the Welsh Valleys.
This was of course Aneurin Bevan who later became elected to Parliament and then became the Health Minister who introduced the National Health Service.
Nye Bevan is standing in the back row of the group, second in from the right. Next to him at the end of the row is my Great Uncle Fred. In the front row, second from the left, is my Great Uncle George.
You will remember that I have been writing about Fred and George and their life in Wales after fleeing London, for reasons unknown, to live their lives under a new name. They found work in the coal mines which was the main employment in the Sirhowhy Valley, along with Ebbw Vale and the Rhymney Valley.
Nye Bevan also worked in the coal mines. The 1911 Census return for his family gives an interesting picture of life in Tredegar.
The Bevan family lived in at 7 Charles Street, Tredegar. It was a six roomed terraced house which meant that there was a dining room and lounge and four bedrooms. Nye was one of seven children living with his parents in this house. There was also a boarder, George Pretheroe, the brother-in-law of Nye’s father, David Bevan. He describes himself as single, not widower.
Four of the men were working in the local coal mine. The Head of the House was Nye’s father, David Bevan. In 1911 he was aged 51 and he was a Timber Drawer. His job was to remove the pit timber props as and when the Hewers needed to gain access. I cannot think of a more dangerous and heavily laboured job than this, removing timber props and not knowing what might happen. Also in the house was William Bevan, Nye’s older brother, aged 19. He was a Hewer, cutting coal from the coalface. As was the boarder, George Protheroe. At the age of 52 he also was cutting coal as a Hewer.
What stands out in the Census return is that young Nye Bevan, at the age of 13, is working as a Hewer beside his Dad and brother and George. We know that young boys were sent up chimneys as sweeps during the 19th Century but to discover 13 year old boys being sent down pit shafts for eight hour shifts hewing coal is still shocking to discover. It is from this industrial and family life that Nye Bevan honed his political skills and 36 years later, in 1947, engineered the National Health Service that we treasure today.
This is the backdrop that influenced Nye Bevan and his political career. In Tredegar he was a respected organiser of men in his lodge and was also an early organiser of the medical fund for miners that enable free access to medical care and through weekly subscriptions. He left Tredegar for a short time to study in the Labour College in London and when he returned, he discovered that he also was unemployed because of the lockouts. He put his energy into organising his fellow coalmining colleagues and one part of this activity was the Query Club. The membership was very selective and never more than 20.
What a privilege for my two great uncles to be his fellow members.
There is an excellent political biography of Ny Bevan by Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (I.B.Tauris 2018) that I have gathered some information from.