Background
Wheatley was born in Bonmahon, County Waterford, Ireland, to Thomas and Johanna Wheatley. Initially, he worked as a miner, as his father had done in Ireland, and then briefly as a publican, but he later ran his own successful printing business which specialised in publishing leftist political works, many of which Wheatley wrote himself such as The Catholic Workingman (1909), Miners, Mines and Misery (1909), Eight Pound Cottages for Glasgow Citizens (1913), Municipal Banking (1920) and The New Rent Acting (1920).
Career
He was a prominent figure of the Red Clydeside era. In 1876 the family moved to Braehead, Lanarkshire in Scotland. A deeply religious man and practising Roman Catholic, he was influenced by early Christian-socialist thinkers, and in 1907 he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP).
He campaigned against the United Kingdom"s involvement in the First World War, campaigning against conscription, and assisting in organising rent strikes in Glasgow.
He sat as a councillor on Glasgow"s city council, becoming one of the best known in the city, before being elected to the House of Commons in the 1922 General Election for Glasgow Shettleston. He was a great supporter of Glasgow Celtic Football Club.
Along with many of the other ILP MPs, especially those from Clydeside, Wheatley found himself drifting from the Labour leadership under MacDonald. Wheatley remained a widely respected political figure and when MacDonald became Prime Minister in January 1924, he appointed him as his Minister of Health.
Wheatley"s is best remembered for his Housing Acting, which he introduced in this period, which saw a massive expansion in affordable municipal housing for the working-class.
Wheatley criticised MacDonald"s moving Labour to the right and consequently found himself unappointed to the Labour Government formed after the 1929 General Election. He refused to support many of the measures proposed by MacDonald"s government and along with Maxton (by now Wheatley"s leader in the ILP) became one of the Labour-left"s leading critics. On 9 May 1924, H. G. Wells led a delegation to ask for birth control reforms.
The delegation asked for two things: that institutions under Ministry of Health control should give contraceptive advice to those who asked for lieutenant
And that doctors at welfare centres should be allowed to offer advice in certain medical cases. Wheatley held strong views against birth control and refused to support the campaign.
John Wheatley died on 12 May 1930, one week before his 61st birthday. John Wheatley College (now Glasgow Kelvin College) in Glasgow was named after him.
Spartacus Educational Biography On-line teaching aid by John SimkinJohn Wheatley by Ian Wood (Manchester University Press 1990) "The Life of "John Wheatley by John Hannan (Spokesman Books 1988).
Politics
He founded and was the first chairman of the Catholic Socialist Society.
Membership
32nd United Kingdom Parliament. 33rd United Kingdom Parliament. 34th United Kingdom Parliament.
35th United Kingdom Parliament.
Personality
He was known as the intellectual behind the ILP activities.