John McKay (2 May 1883 – 4 October 1964) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician who served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Wallsend Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This fo ...

between 1945 and 1964. McKay was born in Addison, near Blaydon, County Durham, the third child of Agnes (née O'Neil) and Peter McKay, a coalminer. His father was originally from Newry, County Armagh, Ireland, and his mother was originally from Stranraer, Wigtownshire, Scotland. He followed his father into the pits at the age of 12. At the age of 27 the Miner's Union sent him to

Ruskin College, Oxford Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...

where he obtained, with distinction, a Diploma in Economics and Political Science. He then resumed his career in the coal mining industry as a Checkweighman. McKay was elected as

for

at the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

, and was re-elected at four subsequent elections until his retirement at the

1964 general election The following elections occurred in 1964. Africa * 1964 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic presidential election * 1964 Dahomeyan general election * 1964 Gabo ...

, where he was succeeded by

Ted Garrett William Edward Garrett (21 March 1920 – 30 May 1993) was a British Labour Party politician. Garrett was educated at the London School of Economics and was an engineer and maintenance fitter. He was a councillor on Northumberland County Co ...

. He was made a Freeman of the Borough of Wallsend on 25 April 1963, an honour shared with Aneurin Bevan, who was granted it on 18 October 1952.

References

* * North East England Mining Archive and Research Centre

External links

* 1883 births 1964 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 Wallsend {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub