From Lord Evans of Parkside.  Jarrow Central School 1942 - 1945

          John Evans as was.

I lived in Franklin St. Jarrow with my widowed mother and two younger sisters.  I passed the exam for Jarrow Central School in June 1942.  Prior to this I had been at the Grange School which was next door.

I started in 1a and some of the boys I remember were: Davie White, Robbie Maughan, Bob Hall and Derek Colquhoun. I can only remember two girls names both were called Joan Wilson.  One was from Monkton and the other from Felling.

Mr.Younson was headmaster and teachers I can recall are Messrs. Ramsey, Hoyle, Jewell, Jones, Giles, Ridley (Woodwork), Knaggs (Metalwork) and Mesdames Mrs.Young, Mrs.Scott (Music), Miss Mackie (French).

Because of family poverty, my father had been killed in a mining accident in 1937, I left school from 3T in July 1945 and got a job as a labourer in Hebburn Palmers.

In October 1946 I began my apprenticeship as a Marine Fitter and Turner at Swan Hunters, Wallsend. 

In 1949 after declining deferment I was conscripted into the Royal Engineers and served in various parts of Great Britain over the next eighteen  months.  On completing my National Service I returned to Swans to resume my apprenticeship.  The first thing I did was to join the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) and so start my lifelong commitment to the Labour movement.

Prior to National Service, like all apprentices, I had worked in the fitting and machine shops but now I was sent to work on the ships.  The first ship I ever worked on was HMS Albion, an aircraft carrier which had been brought out of 'mothballs'.  This was the onset of what later became The Cold War. 

On completing my apprenticeship in 1952 I joined the Merchant Navy as a Ship's Engineer and over the next three years I saw service all over the world:- USA, Africa, India, Japan, Australia, Europe etc., in various trampships and tankers.

I quit the MN in 1955 and returned to Swans, rejoining the Labour Party and soon I was involved in trade union and political activity.

I then left Swans and started at Hawthorn Leslie's. 

During 1956 my union and political activities increased considerably.  In November I met my future wife, Joan Slater, in the Majestic Ballroom, South Shields.

I should say at this point that the greatest lesson I ever learned at the Central School was how to dance and dancing is still our greatest pleasure.  Joan lived at Rede Avenue, Hebburn, and went to Clegwell. 

Joan and I were married at Glen St. Methodist Church on 6 June 1959 and our first home was in Bridge St., Jarrow.  After eighteen months we moved to Argyle St., Hebburn and in May 1961 our first son was born. 

In May 1962 I was elected as Labour councillor to Hebburn UDC and, later that month, our daughter Judith was born.  In 1964 I left Hawthorn Leslie's where I had been AEU convenor for a number of years and took the job of full time secretary agent of the Jarrow Constituency Labour Party.  In 1966 the Executive Council of the AEU placed me on the unions Parliamentary Panel creating the vision that I might one day become an MP. 

Over the next few years I was nominated for a number of seats without success but gaining great experience.

In 1967 I left the Jarrow Agents job and returned to the shipbuilding industry.  In May 1967 our youngest son was born and we moved to Tennant St., Hebburn. 

Then, on 2 March 1973, the 36th anniversary of my father's death, I was successful in winning the nomination for the Newton Constituency in South Lancashire.  The election took place against the backdrop of the First Miners Strike and Tory Prime Minister Ted Heath's three day week.

I had three collieries in my constituency which was one of the biggest in the Country and I was elected with a 14,700 majority and Harold Wilson formed a minority Labour Government. 

The next six months were frenetic having to travel a huge triangle of Hebburn, Westminster, and Newton.

Eight months later I increased my majority to 16,500 but the Labour Majority was only three.

Afterwards we moved to Culforth near Warrington which was in my constituency.

In 1975 I became an Euro MP as well.

For the next two years I travelled to every common market country holding seminars and meetings with people desperate for financial aid from Brussels. 

It was rewarding work but very exhausting as I was frequently summoned to The Commons to bolster the Labour vote. 

After two years of chairing that multi-lingual, dual agenda (regional policy and European transport) committee which had entailed thousands of miles of travel throughout The Common Market I decided in 1978 that it was time to return to The House of Commons full time.

I had only been back a few weeks when Prime Minister Callaghan, who had taken over from Wilson in 1976, invited me into his government as a Whip.

This was the period of a minority Labour Government struggling to survive 'The Winter of Discontent' and regularly sitting into the early hours four nights a week.

It was a fantastic time and I learned more about the art of Government Business Management during that period than in all my previous political life.

It couldn't last and The Government lost a confidence motion in 1979 and were defeated in the subsequent General Election.  I retained my seat in Newton but with a reduced majority of 11,500.  I didn't appreciate then that I was going into 18 years in Opposition! 

Jim Callaghan continued as Leader of the Opposition and I continued as an opposition Whip.  During the next two years I established a reputation as one of the Labour Parties leading  experts on Trade Union and labour relation affairs.  Civil war was breaking out within the ranks and various Trotskyist factions were beginning to manifest themselves within the party.  A weary Callaghan resigned in 1981 and after a bitter and divisive contest Michael Foot and Dennis Healey were elected Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

Another great shock was in store for me because, immediately following the leadership election, Michael Foot appointed me his Private Parliamentary Secretary.

The strife within was now getting very bitter and dirty both on The Left, with their militant tendency, and on The Right with the breakaway faction which created the SDP.  I was at the very heart of the conflict.

In 1980 the National Union of Labour Clubs, which had a strong organisation in Lancashire, had asked me to assist their organisation in its political work and in 1981 I became their National Political Secretary.  In 1982 the NULSC nominated me to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.  I received strong support from a number of other Socialist Societies and was duly elected to the NEC at Blackpool in September 1982.  My election broke the hard left majority and gave Foot and Healey a crucially important majority of one.

In 1983 a major boundary redistribution took place and my constituency disappeared.  I was subsequently elected for the new constituency of St. Helens North in the General Election which took place against the backdrop of Mrs. Thatcher's Falklands victory and the bitter civil war within the Labour Party.

Labour were heavily defeated, Foot and Healey resigned, and Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley were elected Leader and Deputy Leader of The Party.

Neil Kinnock immediately appointed John Smith and myself as Labour's new employment team and we were soon into battle against Mrs. Thatcher's Trades Union Bill the purpose of which was to cripple the Unions and break the financial links between The Unions and The Labour Party.  Our task wasn't made any easier by the Miner's Strike which was running in parallel with the committee stages of the bill.  Nevertheless we succeeded in winning major concessions which protected some of the rights of Union members.  Interestingly two of the new members who served on the Bill's committee were Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

My work with the NEC also increased heavily.

Over the few years I was chairman of the Energy, Youth and Finance committees - not all at the same time.  I was elected Chairman of the Labour Party for 1991/92 and I chaired all meetings of the NEC.

In 1992 we suffered a grievous blow with an unexpected defeat in the 1992 General Election.  Kinnock and Hattersley resigned and I presided over a special party conference which elected John Smith and Margaret Beckett as Leader and Deputy Leader of the Party and in September of that year I chaired the Party conference at Blackpool.  As I sat in the chair just before I rose to open and deliver the Chairman's Address to Conference I reflected that the impoverished little boy from Jarrow Central School had come a long way.

I continued to serve on the NEC until the 1996 Conference, John Smith had, tragically, died, and Tony Blair and John Prescott were now Leader and Deputy Leader of the Party.  I reflected upon all the effort and work and constitutional changes that I and others had embarked on in 1982 which had resulted in many titanic struggles at Party Conferences over those years: Ridding The Party of the militant tendency and other Trotskyist groups.  The introduction of one member, one vote for parliamentary and council candidate selections. The establishment of a mass party with a national membership scheme and the creation of a party with sensible policies which had great appeal to the British public and the near certainty that Labour would destroy John Major's Tory Government.  This lead me to the conclusion that it was time for me to step down from the NEC.

In 1997 as I prepared to defend my seat in the May General Election there was a great shock awaiting me.

I and another twelve long serving Labour MPs were asked by Tony Blair to stand down as a candidate and accept Life Peerage on the grounds that he needed to strengthen Labours membership in the House of Lords.  I accepted.

In June 1997 I was inducted - complete with hired ermine robes - into The Lords.

I will never forget the words of my 8 year-old granddaughter, "Granddad," she said, "you didn't half look stupid bobbing up and down in that long red dress!"

I agreed with her - I did feel stupid!

Finally, when I look back to my years at Jarrow Central School and consider the education we received and the craft skills we learned, during wartime, in large classes with elderly teachers I am eternally grateful as I am sure everyone else is.

If any of my Central or Grange School friends read this I would welcome hearing from them.

They can write to my c/o The House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW or phone me, Lance Liddle (Editor of this splendid website has my number).  I regret I am not computer literate so I don't have an email address.

Lord Evans of Parkside.  Jarrow Central School 1942-1945

(John Evans as was.)

19/3/2004

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