Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
After attending elementary school he joined the Royal Flying Corps at the start of the First World War, later transferring to the Royal Air Force. At the end of the war, he settled in Birmingham where he became involved in the Cooperative movement. His work in the Company-op also included membership of the Company-operative Party.
He was elected to Birmingham City Council from Street Bartholomew"s Ward in 1927 as a Labour and Company-operative member, and from 1935 he was Secretary of the Birmingham and District Company-operative Party.
In 1945 he was nominated as an Alderman. He specialised in local government, education, finance and housing, but was a low-profile Member of Parliament. Unusually for the time, he was opposed to building tower blocks to ease the housing crisis, insisting that workers wanted to live on ground level with a bit of garden.
His health declined in 1958, and he fought the 1959 general election from a hospital bed, leaving it only on polling day to meet party workers. After a major operation in the summer of 1960 failed, Wheeldon died that October.
40th United Kingdom Parliament. 41st United Kingdom Parliament. 42nd United Kingdom Parliament]
Following the death of Fred Longden, Wheeldon was elected as Labour Company-operative Member of Parliament for Birmingham Small Heath in a by-election in 1952.