Hayes Cottage Hospital Occupation 1983

PHOTO: Sylvia Tebbenham (left) Marge Bayne (right)

Hayes Cottage Occupation 1983

Hayes Cottage Hospital will be open this Christmas, and every other Christmas

Hillingdon Health Emergency Leaflet

Hayes Cottage Hospital will be open this Christmas, and every other Christmas

On the evening of Tuesday 25th October 1983 the staff at Hayes Cottage Hospital occupied in a bid to keep the hospital open. This action uas taken after a lot
of thought but it was clearly the only way to stop the closure after other avenues had been exhausted.

The reaction of the people of Hayes has been really magnificent. We have had visitors coming round with food, supplies and money. Messages of support have
been flooding in from all over London while a delegation from Charing Cross Hospital came over to see us. Ken Livingstone sent a message of congratulations saying 'This will be an example to other parts of the London Health Service faced with cuts in vital jobs and services. Best wishes for the struggle ahead.'

The best bit of news recently has been that the G.P's connected with the hospital are to start admitting patients again so we will be running just as before. Certainly, the patients in the Cottage Hospital are solidly behind the "work-in. Fifteen of them have signed a petition demanding the retention of the hospital and one patient has insisted that if any attempt is made to move her she intends to die in the ambulance......

Our aim in this struggle is to force the District Health Authority to take their proposals for cuts out to full public consultation. We believe that the people of Hillingdon have a right to a say in the sort of Health Service that is provided instead of a totally undemocratic and unaccountable group of individuals dictating from on high.

We believe that we are going to win the battle for Hayes Cottage Hospital but to do so we need the help of the ordinary people of Hayes. 

WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO GUARD THE GATES, DAY AND NIGHT. 

We also need letters going to the DHA demanding that no violence will be used and that patients will not be forcibly removed against their will. This is a real possibility and it must not be allowed.

Hayes Cottage Hospital is an integral part of the community in this area. It provides a type and a quality of care that is not available at a big unit like Hillingdon. Closing our hospital will mean that many old people and parents will have long journeys if they need medical treatment. These cuts are going
to hit most those people that need the IMHS while the people With the money Will have their own private care. THIS MUST NOT BE ALLOLWED. The NHS Was set up through the struggle and toil of our older folk and we pay for it through our taxes. In any civilised society decent health care should be a right not left to charity.

HELP US DEFEND THE HEALTH SERVICE. HELP US SAVE HAYES COTTAGE HOSPITAL.

The Hillingdon Health Emergency Campaign had a spontaneous beginning. Members of the public had attended a meeting of the Regional Health Authority on 27^th September 1983. At that meeting, the proposed cuts in Health spending ware announced - including the proposed closure of the two Cottage Hospitals
Hayes and Northwood and Pinner.

There were immediate protests from the public gallery and four people were ejected from the meeting. Later an impromptu meeting of the protesters took place in the Civic Centre electing a committee which immediately went into action to arouse public opinion and protest against the cuts.

Leaflets were produced; public meetings held; petition forms distributed, resulting in thousands of signatures. Letters were written to the press, M.P.'s, Councillors and other public figures inviting their support.

Trade union branches were heavily involved and asked to support, both financially and physically. To date, nearly £1000 has been raised. The support received from the public has given a great boost to the campaign, which stepped up its supporting activity following the decision by the Staff to occupy the two threatened hospitals.

It is the policy of the Committee that the campaign against Health service cuts will continue, whatever the outcome at Hayes and Northwood. They therefore continue to ask for public support and feel sure that it will be forthcoming.

Hilllngdon needs its Health Service. Support the Campaign.

Hillingdon Health Emergency (GLC Funded) 2a Botwell Lane, Hayes, Middx

Steve Clare, Secretary Hillingdon Health Emergency:

Michael Walker COHSE

Marjorie (Marge) Bayne NUPE Hayes Cottage Hospital Steward (Blonde in picture)

Sylvia Tebbenham NUPE Hayes Cottage Hospital Steward

Supported by unions at EMI (TGWU), KODAK (TGWU), Express Dairy (TGWU), NALGO,NUPE, COHSE, AUEW and Tenants & Pensioners Groups

Northwood & Pinner Cottage hospital occupied the next day lead by the Matron and COHSE Steward Jean Carey (daugter in law ? of Milly Johnson famous Irish nationalist and Harrow Labour Councillor in the 60s/70s)

Both Cottage Hospitals were saved for the next seven years and provided a vital NHS service to there communities, However in the early 1990's the Hayes Cottage Hospital was turned into a nursing home.

These Occupations had close links with Thornton View hospital Occupation, Bradford 5 August 1983 -August 1985, :ocal TVH Union Reps - Betty Elie (COHSE) & Hazel Ward (NUPE)

Hayes Labour Councillors 1964

Hayes Labour Councillors 1964


First Hayes Labour Councillors elected to the new London Borough of Hillingdon held on Thursday 7th May 1964




BELMORE WARD
Ivor Anthony 42 Barra Hall Road (Engineer EMI)Elsie Broughton 37 Warley Road (Housewife)Simon Geldberg 78 Bath Road, hayes (Financial Clerk)Ernest Kirby Harding 62 Central Aveenue (Newspaper Editor)

FROGMORE
Veronica Chalk 68 Gainsborough Road (Housewife)Kenneth Gigg 97 Adelphi Crescent (Scientific Glass Worker)
Brian Shaw 19 Raeburn Road (Die Sinker)Edward Joseph Vance 11 Raeburn Road (Supervisor)

HAYES WARD
Alfred John Charles Beck 199 Station Road (Contracts Manager)Robert John Came 40 Hunters Grove (Engine Driver)Gwilym Arthur Jones 12 Eighth Avenue (Fitter)
Ossie Garvin 44 Church Road (Progress Chaser EMI)

SOUTH WARD
David Flory 10 Zealand Avenue, Harmondsworth (Fitter)Kathleen Johnson 18 Colbrook Avenue (Housewife)
Hubert (Charles) John Key 24 Briar Way, West Drayton (Electrician)Mervyn Wheeler 12 Stormount Drive (Contracts Manager)

Harry Gosling - Hayes 1918

General Election 1918
 

To the ELECTORS OF THE UXBRIDGE
PARLIAMENTARY DIVISION OF MIDDLESEX.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS,

Having been selected by a representative Labour and Trade Union Conference as the Labour candidate for the Uxbridge Division, I now appeal to you for your vote and interest at the. forthcoming General Election.

I endorse the programme of the Labour Party. My outlook- upon the issues of the election is that the Government should accept its inundate from the House of

Commons, representing the entire people of the country, rather than that the Government should impose its mandate upon the freely elected representatives of the people.

In order to obtain the free and unfettered decision of the people of the country, I am entirely in favour of the complete restoration of freedom of speech, publication, travel, residence, and choice of occupation.

I am in favour of complete political democracy; a free House of Commons requires no House of Lords.

I am totally opposed to any form of conscription, military or industrial.

My policy regarding Ireland is one of the fullest possible measure, of Home Rule for the Irish people.

Together with my colleagues in the Labour Movement, I am resolved that just and generous treatment must be accorded to our soldiers and sailors who have borne the brunt of the war, and to their womenfolk and children. I am, moreover, convinced that full provision must be made for the civil war workers discharged from the various munitions factories and war industries during the period of resettlement.

Soldiers, sailors, and all disemployed workmen must be guaranteed work at the current Trade Union rates of their occupations, or full and free maintenance by the State.'

The complete fulfilment of the nation's pledge to the Trade Unionists that their pre-war practices and customs must be unconditionally reintroduced shall have my fullest support.

All monopolies tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The Labour Party policy is not to rob the rich, but to see that the rich do not rob the poor.

Our experience during the war proves that it is essential that the State should 'maintain its control, and should assume ownership of all the national means of transport— road, rail, air, and water. It becomes more and more essential that the State must also assume the ownership and control of the coal and iron mines, together with all other monopolies.

The land belongs of right to the people. Therefore the State must assume ownership and control of that which is the legacy of us all.

I am in favour of a free national system of education, from the elementary school to the university, providing opportunities for the fullest use of the natural abilities of every child. The higher branches of education must no longer be kept a close preserve for the rich.

On the question of the tremendous war indebtedness, I am at one with the Labour 

Party in demanding that the country must pay its way by adjusting taxation strictly according to ability to bear it. I am in favour of the removal of all taxes on food and the institution of a graduated income tax.

The war was a war to end wars, and therefore the peace and security of Europe and the entire world must rest firmly established upon a League of Nations.

Regarding the question of old age pensions, I shall support the reduction of the age and a substantial increase in the amount.

Two important problems which are closely' allied are the questions of housing and health. This country cannot continue to hold a leading place amongst the nations unless we have a radical improvement in the standard of life of the
common people.

The Medical Boards have shown that afar too great proportion of our men were physically unfit for the onerous task of bearing arms. Yet the standard of life

has only been raised to its present position—which is still far too low—by the unceasing efforts of Trade Union and Labour organisations of the country. I am convinced that we must provide hundreds of thousands of well-planned,

well-built, and commodious homes for our people. These questions are of the most vital importance, and must not be delayed.

My energies and efforts have been at the disposal of various forms of public service for 25 years. During the war I have assisted the Government whenever called upon, and have served as a member of the Departmental Committee on the Reception and Employment of Belgian Refugees, the Statutory Committee on War Pensions, the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy. I am a member of the Port and Transit Executive Committee, the Special Grants

Committee, Ministry of Pensions, the Imperial War Grave Commission, and the Advisory Council to the Board of Trade,

I am quite prepared to continue to place my services at the disposal of the Government, but only as a free and unfettered representative of the people. I appeal to the men and women voters of the Uxbridge Division of Middlesex
to support me, asking during the election only for a fair field and no favour.

Yours sincerely,

Harry Gosling

Published by:

Uxbridge Divisional Labour Party Secretary: Percy Langton, 18 Angel Lane, Hayes, Middlesex

Agent: W. Knowles, 2 Brandville Road, West Drayton, Middlesex

Councillor Peter Fagan - Hayes

Peter Fagan

Peter F Fagan

Born Dublin
Educated by the Brothers at Catholic school Shopkeeper, Lansbury Drive, Hayes TGWU member elected to Hillingdon Council in 1973
Superb and very popular Labour Group Leader Labour candidate for Hayes and Harlington
Retired to South West England to run a Garden Centre circa 1988
Tragically died soon after

John McDonnell MP

John McDonnell

The son of a docker and shopworker, John was born in Liverpool in 1951 before his family moved south because of work. He received his first degree from Brunel University and a Masters from Birkbeck College, London University.

He first worked as a production worker on the shop floor, before being employed as a trade union official for the National Union of Mineworkers and subsequently the TUC.

In 1981, he was elected as the GLC councillor for Hayes and Harlington and became Chair of Finance responsible for GLC's £3 billion budget. He was also deputy leader to Ken Livingstone.

Following the abolition of the GLC, John became the Chief Executive of the Association of London Authorities, eventually the Association of London Government, representing all the London Boroughs in relations with central government and Europe.

In 1992, he fought his home town seat of Hayes and Harlington but lost by 54 votes. He immediately launched a campaign to win the constituency and in 1997 won the seat with a 13,000 majority with one of largest swings to Labour in the country. Since then, Labour has held the seat with over 60% of the vote.

Locally John describes himself as a community MP, living and working in his constituency. He has been acknowledged by political friend and foe alike as an immensely hard working local MP on behalf of local constituents and for championing local community issues such as the threat of expansion at Heathrow airport and its impact on local communities.

In Parliament John is the Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs. Within the Labour Party he is the Chair of the Labour Representation Committee, a rank-and-file organisation for Labour Party supporters and trade unionists.

He is also a leading member of a number of All Party groups within Parliament including groups representing individual trade unions, such as PCS, RMT, FBU, Justice Unions and the NUJ as well as topic groups on a wide range of issues such as the Irish community, the Punjabi community, endometriosis, and Kenya.

He is Chair of 'Public Services Not Private Profit', a campaign which brings together 16 trade unions and several campaigning organisations to defend public services against privatisation. He is a prominent member of the Stop The War Coalition, and has been a consistent campaigner in Parliament against the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

John is married with a ten year old son and with two adult daughters from a previous marriage, and has two grand children.

In his time he enjoys theatre, cinema, reading, football and cricket, but more actively he enjoys sailing on the Norfolk Broads, cycling, and playing endless games of tennis and football with his inexhaustible son.

Walter Ayles MP

AYLES, Walter Henry

Born at 26 Thorne Street, Wandsworth Road, Lambeth, London on 24th March 1879, Walter H Ayles was one of the five children of a railway porter Percy Walter Ayles and his wife Elizabeth (nee Little), whose wages were 18’s week. At the age of 13, having passed the seventh standard, he went o work at a cardboard-box factory, but was afterwards apprenticed at the engineering works of the London & South-Western Railway. When the men were locked out, young Ayles, then 18, being unwilling to blackleg, put in his notice.

After six months' unemployment, he got a job in a newsagent's shop, and in March1899 went to Birmingham and resumed his trade as an Engineer. He was for three years Birmingham district secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (AEU), and afterwards, when living at Bristol, was treasurer until 1921 of four local branches of that union. His AEU officership lasted 17 years

.

In 1904 he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and as a Labour candidate was elected to the Birmingham Board of Guardians (Aston) 1904-1907,

In 1910 Ayles moved to Bristol to become Bristol ILP branch full time General Secretary

During the first 18 months from his appointment the branch quadrupled its activities and greatly increased its membership.

In 1912 he was elected for Easton ward of Bristol City Council, a seat he retained until 1922. In his first year on the council he wrote a pamphlet "Bristols Next Step" and in 1923 (relected 1923-, Ayles wrote an ILP booklet on “What a Socialist Town Council Would Do”

Ayles elected to the National Council of the I.L.P 1912-1927. He has also been for the last nine years chairman of the Bristol Labour Party.

Walter Ayles persistently and energetically opposed the World War One as he had the Boer War. Arrested as a conscientious objector, he remained in the hands of the military and prison authorities for two-and-a-half years, and was confined in seven different jails. He held office in the No-Conscription Fellowship and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1920 he helped found the No More War Movement (NMWM)

He was a local preacher for 20 years among the Methodists and Congregationalists, but after the war he joined the Society of Friends (Quakers). He has been for many years an active Rechabite.

Ayles stood for the parliamentary seat of Bristol East in 1918 but did not stand as he was in Prison and the ILP was short of funds. He stood for Bristol North in 1922 and was elected as Member of Parliament for Bristol North in 1923. Mr. Ayles was reputed the most effective speaker in the West of England. Election meetings at Bristol North have been described as occasions of an almost religious fervour. On the morning of polling day an ex-soldier slipped into the candidate's pocket a horseshoe which he had carried in his knapsack all through the war—and he had never received a scratch. When the numbers went up the soldier swore the horseshoe had done it. " No," said the new M.P., " it was the huge crowd of ex-Service men who worked for me."

He was Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol North 1923-1924 and 1929 1931

He fought Bristol North for a sventh time in 1935 and after defeat accepted that it was time to move on

He moved to Orpington near London and was soon elected as a Urban District Councillor in 1937

Elected 1945 for the parliamentary seat of Southall (which included Hayes) during a campaign which included attacks on Winston Churchill pre War record and calling for wide scale nationalisation.

Member of Parliament for Hayes & Harlington 1950- 1953

He retired to his house in Southall but planned to move to Scotland

His son was killed on active service during World War 2 (1943)

his first wife was Bertha Winifred Batt (m 1904) a Bristol ILP and Womens Freedom League member
His second wife was Jean Ogilvie Middleton (m1944)

Died 6 July 1953 at his home Kingussie, Invernesshire,Scotland


NOTE
Walter Ayles was selected as the Uxbridge Divisional Labour candidate in April 1937 beating Humbert Beaumont (nominated by Hayes Labour Party), Ernest Hamblin (ASLEF) and James Eldridge (an Engineer). Beaumont went on to be MP for Sunderland. Ayles was nominated by Uxbridge Labour Party

Arthur Skeffington MP

SKEFFINGTON, Arthur Massey

Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington 1953 -1971

(By-election death of Walter Ayles). former M.P for West Lewisham 1945-50. Joint Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Land and National Resources since 1964. Contested Streatham 1935. West Lewisham by-election 1938, reduced Tory vote by 7,000.

Born 4th September 1908. the son of Arthur James Williams a pottery manfacturer's clerk and his wife Edith Massey. (In 1933 changed his name by depoll to Skeffington from Williams) Educated Streatham Grammar School In his youth he played for Surrey second eleven (life long member)and London University, B.Sc. Economics (Hons.). Teacher, economist and barrister (middle temple 1951).

Joined Labour Party 1923 and the Fabians in 1933

In 1937 Skeffington re-established the Battersea Parliament originally established by John Burns

In 1938 he visited the Soviet Union

Was not callled up because of "poor eyesight" and entered the Civil Service, initially at the Board of Trade, later Ministry of Supply, where he became assistant director in charge of the production of medical supplies.

Labour member of the London County Council 1951-1958 (Peckham)

P.P.S. to John Hynd, M.P., and to George Buchanan, M.P., when Minister of Pensions 1945-47. Passed into Law Enforcement of Contracts Act.

Member of Executive Committee of Fabian Society, Chairman 1956. Socialist Societies representative since 1953 on the National Executive of the Labour Party:

Chairman of its Local Government Sub-Committee. Joint President, British Section of the Council of European Municipalities. Member of Political Purposes Committee, R.A.C.S (Co-op).

Member of National Union of Teachers and National Union of Municipal & General Workers Union (GMB). and a Justice of the Peace

Board of Trade 1941. Worked on "concentration of industry" policy under Professor G. C. Allen. Assistant Director of Medical Supplies, Ministry of Supply, 1943-45.'

Member of Parliamentary delegations to East Africa 1948 and 1957 and U.S.A. 1949 and 1958. Won League of Nations Scholarship to Prague; visited U.S.S.R. and many other European countries. Sometime member of the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal, Chairman of the Expert Working Surveys on Land and Building.

He fought hard against the Tories aboloition of the London County Council in 1963 but was always at odds with the Left wing within the Hayes Labour Party as well as the Communist Party

He was a short, stocky friendly man who generally wore a home grown flower in his button hole

Special mission to India for Labour Party 1961

Seven years Chairman of Labour Friends of Israel

Specially interested in education, land, law, local government.

For many years his home was Meopham, Kent
Married twice Sadie Isabel Belvin and later in 1952 to Sheila McKenzie, two sons. Hobbies: cricket (Surrey), bee-keeping, gardening (President of the Arboriculture Association), walking (Ramblers Association)

died 18th February 1971

Ramsay MacDonald at Harrow ILP

Harrow ILP


Ramsay MacDonald, Labour leader and Labour Prime Minister was a founder member of the Harrow branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in the late 1890's

The meeting was held over tea Hillcrest, Harrow View at the invitation of Mr Harry Phillips who was the endeavouring to establish a branch of the Independent labour Party in Harrow.

Mr Phillips nor Mr C.J. Peer then of Harrow Weald and now of Ickenham (who were also present) are likely to forget the circumstances, as they are still resident in the district. While Mr MacDonald and Mr Peer have pursued their ideals by different road, Mr Harry Phillips has renounced party politics entirely
4th September 1931 Uxbridge Advertiser

The Councillor Ossie Garvin "Roundabout"

Councillor Ossie Garvin Councillor

Ossie Garvin started life in the small town of Ashton, Makerfield, Lancashire he became a miner at aged 14, he hated the minesand moved to Hayes to seek work at EMI in 1929, living the rest of his life in Church Road (with his wife Clara). 

Ossie Garvin joined the Labour Party in 1937 and became the leader of Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council in 1954. he was awarded an MBE in 1967. he was mayor of Hillingdon 1971-1972. he represented the Townfield ward when elected to Hillingdon council. 

Ossie was also a Justice of the Peace. he was also a strong and committed Catholic while Ossie continued to believe that the formation of Hillingdon was to the determent of the working people of Hayes his pet project was to increase council housing and a by pass for Hayes which was finally completed in 1992 he died aged 77 in June 1990

Councillor Ossie Garvin Councillor

Ossie Garvin started life in the small town of Ashton, Makerfield, Lancashire he became a miner at aged 14, he hated the minesand moved to Hayes to seek work at EMI in 1929, living the rest of his life in Church Road (with his wife Clara). he joined the Labour Party in 1937 and became the leader of Hayes & Harlington Urban District Council in 1954. he was awarded an MBE in 1967. he was mayor of Hillingdon 1971-1972. he represented the Townfield ward when elected to Hillingdon council. he was also a Justice of the Peace. he was also a strong and committed Catholic while Ossie continued to believe that the formation of Hillingdon was to the determent of the working people of Hayes his pet project was to increase council housing and a by pass for Hayes which was finally completed in 1992 he died aged 77 in June 1990