Maxton Papers

Materials dating from Maxton's early career

James Maxton, John Wheatley and Campbell Stephen, ca. 1925

Maxton is pictured with fellow ILP MPs and close friends Campbell Stephen (third from left) and John Wheatley (fourth from left). John Wheatley was considered the ILP's main thinker and political strategist, whilst Maxton was thought of as the party's great orator and natural leader. Wheatley was the architect of left-wing opposition on Red Clydeside during the First World War. He was instrumental in organising the Glasgow anti-war protests and along with Mary Barbour and Helen Crawfurd he also helped organise the rent strikes of 1915-16. On the industrial front, Wheatley brought his influence to bear by advising trade union leaders during the strikes against the introduction of the Munitions Act in 1915.

Wheatley was also the architect of the ILP's rise to prominence in the Glasgow municipal elections of 1920, when they won 44 seats on Glasgow Council. Soon after, in 1922, Wheatley was amongst the 10 Red Clydesiders elected to Parliament. He was appointed Minister of Health when Ramsay MacDonald became Labour Prime Minister in January 1924 and is widely regarded as the architect of the 1924 Housing Act, which included a massive programme of house building to provide Britain's working class with decent housing at affordable rents. John Wheatley died in 1930 aged 61.

Campbell Stephen was originally a Minister of the United Free Church at Ardrossan, before being elected to the House of Commons as MP for Camlachie in the 1922 General Election. Stephen was defeated in the 1931 General Election but was re-elected in 1935. He was one of Maxton's closest political allies within the ILP and supported Maxton both in his attempts to foster closer relations with the Communist Party and also during the disaffiliation debate in the early 1930s. Despite his strong support for ILP independence from the Labour Party when Maxton was alive, Stephen rejoined the Labour Party just before his death on 25th October 1947.

Source: Glasgow City Archives